Tengu
by CSHayden
Summary: Brooklyn's daughter, Ariana, goes searching for a mythical clan of gargoyles in Japan.
1. Default Chapter

**Tengu**

**A TGS-based story**

**by**** C.S. Hayden**

Characters from the "Gargoyles" show are the property of Disney and Buena Vista Television. All other characters are from The Gargoyles Saga fanfiction series. Excerpt from "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare.

**En route to Ishimura, 2015**

"Brooklyn-_san_! Stop that!" 

The coquettish tone of her mother's voice pulled Ariana's attention from the script she was reading, a copy of Brock's latest adaptation for the London clan theater group. Her parents were curled up together on a wide double seat farther up the airplane. Sata was casting a cool look over her shoulder as she carefully checked to see if her hair was in place but the determined smirk on Brooklyn's face clearly said that he wasn't giving up. Something about the sight of her mother's shapely ears always brought out the amorous rogue in her father.

Ariana smiled; Brooklyn and Sata were a prime example of opposites attracting. She was an elegant Japanese samurai with a geisha's features carved from cool jade. He was rough-hewn from Scottish red granite with a wild mane of feathery white hair and distinctive beaked profile. They had met on Brooklyn's time-traveling adventures with the Phoenix Gate and in a way, this trip to Ishimura reminded Ariana of those days. She and her twin brother, Graeme, had spent the first eighteen years of their lives traveling. Most gargoyles preferred to stay close to their home clans but not Ariana – the second she'd stepped on board Xanatos' private plane, the old wanderlust began to tingle in her wings and she couldn't wait to see what adventures would be awaiting her in Japan.

Sata had changed into her best kimono – rich wine-colored silk with cascading bronze and ivory chrysanthemums -- in full anticipation of the welcome that her home clan would no doubt give her. There was no sign of the battle that had ensued getting Brooklyn to wear something other than his customary blue loincloth and armor, but ultimately Sata had won that contest of wills, if not in exactly the way she had wanted. Both Brooklyn and Graeme opted for the modified tunic suits popular with most male gargoyles in Manhattan instead of the formal haori worn in Ishimura.

Being her father's daughter, Ariana had also fought tooth and talon against the ornate kimono that her mother had selected for her. No amount of delicate embroidery or costly silk was going to hide the fact that she was a girl with a beak. She'd retaliated with a barely there kimono that was so high cut on the sides and so low cut in the front that it was basically two pieces of fabric held together with an obi. Brooklyn had promptly put his foot down about that and as result, Ariana got her way and was wearing a slinky silk cheongsam in teal decorated with a willow-and-flower motif. The way that it clung to her figure made Brooklyn glare at every male that glanced her way but it was also conservative enough that he really couldn't complain about it.

"They're at it again, eh?"

Ariana looked back at Graeme. Her green-skinned twin brother had taken over one of the workstations in the cabin, covering it with his usual assortment of electronic gear. Graeme had taken advantage of the current popularity that gargoyles were having in the public eye and had been attending night classes at NYU. He'd wrangled his way into an internship at Xanatech and it had been weeks since Ariana had seen him out of the labs. 

"Oh, yeah," she answered, moving to a seat near him. "You know the 'rents, always fooling around. What are you doing?"

"Keeping up with my part of the research," Graeme answered, "but mostly I'm just burning up nervous energy." He looked wistfully at the white-furred, golden-haired lioness that served as the screensaver on his laptop. "Do you suppose she's changed much?"

Ariana laughed. "You should know that, bro. You're online with Lucy almost every night."

"Yeah, but it's not the same as being with her, you know?" Graeme sighed. "It's been three years, _oniichan_ – what if she doesn't like what she sees?" He ran his hand through his newly short hair. "I mean, I look nothing like I did the last time she came to visit, thanks to that stupid accident."

"It's not your fault that your lab partner put the wrong chemicals together," Ariana said reasonably. "You're lucky that your hair was the only casualty. Stone sleep took care of the burns. Short hair makes you look all rugged and athletic, not like geeky old Graeme at all."

Graeme gave her a sour look down the length of his beak. "I'll have you know that Lucy likes the geeky me."

"Then what are you worried about?"  She leaned towards him and peered at his monitor. "What's this? You were supposed to have requested time off."

"You know me when I get interested in something," Graeme said as he popped up a new window. "Xanatech is doing research on chronotons – charged particles that have a temporal resonance. If we can somehow manage to isolate them, it's theoretically possible to control the flow of time. The other tech guys are really excited. The application toward space travel and traveling at FTL speed--"

"Theory?" Ariana interrupted before he got too technical and raised an eyebrow. "Do these guys even know how much practical knowledge you have of time travel?"

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, Graeme admitted, "Well, I asked Owen about that. He pointed out that since I was just a kid, it wasn't like I was paying that much attention to the mechanics of the Phoenix Gate. Besides, I work with a bunch of guys that sometimes don't even know what day of the week it is, much less even know about magical time travel." He tapped his left sleeve where he still wore his time tracker. "If I really wanted to cheat, I'd let them take this apart."

"You wouldn't!"

"Of course not," he snorted. "Where's the fun in that? I'd much rather work on this from the ground up. Who knows – maybe I had something to do with it."

The cabin light came on to indicate that they were beginning to descend from the upper atmosphere. Graeme had to scramble to get all his things stowed away in time to strap in for re-entry. When the NASA space program had stalled in the early twenty-first century, Xanatos had bought the space plane design plans and developed the first working models. He'd quickly turned his space division into a profitable venture by leasing out his fleet of orbital planes for commercial use. As one of the perks, Xanatos had a private cabin on all his space planes and if he chose to give it to a family of gargoyles, then that was his business.

 Since buying Gargoyle World, Xanatos had set up a local office in Sendai City. Acquiring his own private runaway at the municipal airport was nothing for the multi-billionaire. His office had a limo waiting to drive Brooklyn and his family up the coast to Ishimura. When they arrived there, a considerable crowd of both humans and gargoyles were waiting to meet them. Kai made a formal greeting which Sata responded to with equal grace before being swept away by her admirers. Ariana started to follow her father and brother when the sound of her name caught her attention. She turned to get a pleasant surprise.

"Midori!" Ariana crowed as her old friend swam through the crowd to greet her. The color of freshly-brewed green tea, Midori had changed from the jean clad hipster she had been years before; now she wore the red-and-white costume of a Shinto priestess. Double-pronged horns protruded from glossy shoulder-length dark hair that had once been short, gel-spiked and dyed bright pink. 

"Ariana!" Midori hugged her and then held her out at arm's length to admire her finery. "Oh, Ari-_chan_, such a beautiful dress!" She narrowed her eyes conspiratorially. "Can I borrow it? Since I started on temple duty, I never have time to shop!"

"Same old Mi-_chan_," Ariana chuckled. "I've missed you! When did you become a _miko_?" she asked, referring towards her friend's garments. "You look like Sailor Mars on her off days."

"Ah, yes – but if I only had Rei's long hair and even longer legs!" Midori sighed dramatically and laughed in a merry little trill like birdsong. "But seriously, I made the choice to serve at the temple only last winter. We all take turns at it but it was pointed out that since we would be hosting the Grand Miai, extra _miko_ would be needed to assist the Ancestress."

"Who?"

Midori giggled behind her wide sleeve. "Your mother, Ari-_chan_! We are honored to have Sata-_sama_ here to preside over the matchmaking gathering." She clasped her hands together prayerfully. "Not many can say that they've served a legend!"

"Right," Ariana drawled as she crossed her arms and eased back on one hip. "Midori, you _bakachan_, you do know you're talking about the same person that tried to bully me into wearing the most hideous over-decorated housecoat only a few hours ago?"

"Ari-_chan_!" Midori exclaimed, eyes hurt and lips pouting.

"Relax, I know you're very serious about all this and I'm happy for you, but Mi-_chan_, no matter what you call her or whatever god-like status Ishimura gives her, Sata will always just be Mom to me."

"And thank God for that," Brooklyn said dryly as he came up besides his daughter, "because otherwise all this fuss will go to your mother's head." He smiled brightly at her friend. "Hello, Midori. You certainly look pretty tonight."

The Japanese gargoyle bowed her head to hide the blush rising in her cheeks. "Thank you, Brooklyn-_san_. You are too kind."

Ariana cocked her head. "Dad? Why aren't you with Mom?"

The brick red gargoyle snorted. "I got spit out of the crowd like a watermelon seed. Your brother wasn't so lucky." He looked at them both. "So, are you girls catching up on old times?"

"Oh!" Midori grinned and caught Ariana's hands. "That reminds me – I'm hosting a girls only party. Can you come?"

"Sounds great!" She glanced at Brooklyn. "Is that okay with you, Dad?"

Brooklyn made a show of being reluctant. "I don't suppose you'll be talking about boys there, hmm?" When Ariana and Midori both giggled at him, he threw up his hands dramatically. "Silly me – you two have boys on the brain. It's all right with me, sweetheart. I'll let your mother know about it." He looked sourly at the crowd headed for the temple. "Provided, of course, that I ever get near enough to tell her!"

"Come with me, Brooklyn-san," Midori offered generously, "and I can take you into the temple so you do not have to bother with the crowd." She smiled, wrinkling her nose. "Being a _miko_ has its privileges."

Brooklyn grinned and offered an arm to both of them. "You know," he said to Ariana, "I knew there was a reason that I always liked this girl." 

Giggling, Midori led them around the compound wall to a narrow corridor that ended up in the gardens behind the temple. They passed through a small white-washed room that served as a kitchen into an antechamber behind the main shrine. They could hear Kai's deep, slow voice speaking on the other side of the ornate gilt screens as he invoked the Shinto spirits.

"Oh!" Midori stopped suddenly. Brooklyn and Ariana peered curiously around her. An elderly male gargoyle with long white hair was there, clutching at the wall with dull talons. "Washi-_san_!" she said softly. "What are you doing here, _ojisan_? You were to wait in the Great Hall with the other elders."

"Sharp knives are piercing my joints," Washi whispered back. "I couldn't kneel any longer – the pain was too great. I will pay my respects to the Ancestress later. I was going to wait in the garden until after the ceremony but I needed to rest."

"Oh, dear." Midori glanced anxiously from the crowd gathered in the temple to Washi, clearly torn between two obligations. 

Ariana decided to rescue her friend from an awkward situation. "Mi-_chan_, you go sneak Dad in to be with Mother, and I'll take Washi out to the garden." She motioned at them. "I'll be fine – go!!"

"What?" Washi peered at her owlishly, his eyesight faded with age. "Who are you?"

"A friend of Midori's," she answered softly as she put her arm around him gently. The elder felt as though his bones were as frail as those of a bird's – in fact, with his bald head, age-spotted blue skin, and sharp-bladed nose, he resembled a pigeon as he bobbed jerkily down the corridor. "You can call me Ari-_chan_."

"Ari-_chan_ – that's sounds familiar."

"I have visited Ishimura before," she answered lightly, steering them into the kitchen. "I was just a child then."

"Ah! You are the Daughter of the Ancestress!" Washi tried to pull away from her. "You are a guest! You shouldn't be catering to a feeble old gargoyle that doesn't have the strength to walk on his own."

"Nonsense, _ojisan_ ," Ariana said as she settled him on a pile soft cushions on the porch, overlooking the garden. "What kind of respect would I be showing if I didn't help you?" She spied a kettle boiling. "I'm dying for some tea – will you join me?"

"Well…"

Ariana took that for consent and proceeded to dig through the cabinets for the tea things. She remembered from the last time she had been in Ishimura that nearly all the buildings kept the same supplies and tea was considered a staple in Japan. Filling the tea bottle with hot water, she assembled everything she needed on a tray and brought it out to the porch. 

Washi watched her with interest as she went through the motions of making tea. "Well, well," he said as she beat the green powder to a thick froth, "I see you have been learning _Chaji_from your mother."

"Yes," Ariana answered. "Mother feels that a samurai must be a master of many disciplines. I apologize for not having the time to do the full ceremony." She bowed subtly as she offered him the first cup.

"Apologies are not necessary," Washi said graciously as he accepted it. "I am flattered to have the company of a beautiful Tengu maiden like yourself."

"Tengu?" Ariana cocked her head. "Mother has mentioned them before – they were a clan of beaked gargoyles, weren't they?"

"Were? Are!" Setting his tea down, the old gargoyle eased back on his haunches, settling into storyteller mode. "The legend of the Tengu goes back to aboriginal times in Japan but it was in your mother's time that a group of outcast gargoyles brought the legend to life."

"Do they still exist?"

"Oh, yes. We have had contact with the Tengu from time to time. They are a secretive clan, living far from human habitation. They did live closer to us once but as the cities grew, they retreated farther into the mountains." Washi sipped his tea thoughtfully. "They came to us around seventy years ago, near the end of the second World War."

"Why?" Ariana leaned forward, so intrigued by the story that she'd forgotten to make her own tea. "What happened to them?"

"Nagasaki." Nodding at her shocked expression, Washi continued. "The Tengu had been living in the mountains to the north of the city but they were not far enough away to escape the effects of the atomic bomb." He shook his head solemnly. "Many died in stone sleep by rock slides and other falling debris but the survivors awoke to a world in chaos. The radiation made them terribly sick and only the strongest survived to reach Ishimura. Slowly, over several years, the survivors recovered and they decided to relocate to the Rokko Mountains near Osaka."

"Why would they want to leave?"

Washi shifted on his cushion and handed her his cup. "You must understand, young one, the Tengu had become unique, even among gargoyles. When Takakage, the first leader of the Tengu, led his band of thieves away to form their own clan, they were all non-human in appearance – muzzled and feathered and tusked and beaked, like yourself. After so many generations, very few of them had any human features at all and they felt so uncomfortable here in Ishimura that they left. "

"Really?" Ariana made him some fresh tea and passed it back. "I know what that's like. It's tough being a girl with a beak."

"Sometimes a young warrior will leave to find them," Washi commented, slurping his tea, "but they always come back. Wherever it is that Tengu have gone, they wish to remain hidden." He looked her shrewdly. "Somehow, young one, you do not strike me as one who hides from the world."

"I don't know, _ojisan_," Ariana said wistfully, "sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better just to be a face in the crowd."

"My eyes are weak and I can barely make out your features, young one, but I can tell you this – you have a beautiful spirit and that will always make you special." Washi chuckled. "It makes me feel young again, having you all to myself like this." 

At that moment, the temple bells struck with a dull, hollow thump that Ariana felt in her bones. She and Washi both looked expectantly into the building and it wasn't long before Midori reappeared with Graeme and a teal-colored male with a three-pronged crest on his forehead and wavy blue-black hair. Turning slightly and showing off her figure to its best advantage, Ariana smiled at the newcomers.

"Look who I found, _oniichan_," Graeme called cheerfully. "Do you remember Tochi?"

Tochi smiled, his eyes crinkling to narrow ebon crescents. "I remember you – who could forget those line drives you hit?"

"Oh, fine!" Ariana said dramatically. "He only loves me for the way I swing a bat!"

"Talk baseball later!" Midori said in exasperation. She came around to take Washi's tea cup. "Toshi has been studying with our healer, Master Kado. He's going to take Washi-_san_ to the bath house for long hot soak."

"Ah, that will soothe my old bones!" Washi said eagerly as several pairs of hands helped him up. "Thank you for your company, Ari-_chan_. We must share tea again."

Ariana bowed in response. "It would be my pleasure,_ ojisan_." She and Graeme waited until Midori and Toshi had ushered Washi from the temple gardens. "Is Mother upset that I missed the welcoming ceremony?"

"I doubt it," her brother answered. "Dad told her you were off helping an elder. She approves of that kind of thing." He thrust his thumb at their departing friends. "Did you know that Toshi has been courting Midori?"

"Really?" Ariana felt oddly disappointed. Toshi was one of the few Ishimuran males that had been interested in her on their last visit and it had been thrilling to know he had remembered her. She had been wondering if that might lead to renewing their friendship on more adult terms.

"Him and two or three other guys. Midori can't commit while she's working at the temple so it's an open arrangement." Graeme shrugged. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes and smirked. "So you can deflate your chest now. It doesn't impress me."

Ariana swatted him with the back of her hand. "_Baka_!!" 

Graeme merely laughed and danced out of the way.

* * * * *

A few nights later, Midori led Ariana and a horde of young females to a large pavilion in the outer gardens, near the communal rice fields. The location, Ariana suspected, had been chosen not so much for its distance from the main compound but rather due to the decibel level of Midori's stereo. Graeme and his friend Toshi had been recruited to set up the entertainment systems and knowing her brother, there had been some serious high fidelity tweaking going on. 

Sata's new notoriety as the Ancestress had been yielding some unexpected developments for the rest of the family. For the first day or so, they were the center of everyone's attention but Brooklyn insisted on their lives going on as normally as possible and the excitement of having a living kami among them soon died down. Poor Graeme, however, was besieged by a plague of attentive Ishimuran girls and her shy brother fled to the local Xanatech offices in Sendai City while he waited for Lucy to arrive from London. Toshi was kind enough to show Ariana around and to introduce her to his rookery brothers. She suspected that Midori had recruited Toshi to keep Ariana entertained while she was occupied with temple duty but Ariana appreciated her friend's kind gesture. 

The boys that Ariana had met so far had been a bit disappointing. They were friendly enough at first but after the initial shyness wore off and Ariana felt comfortable enough to be herself, something always seemed to go wrong -- like the incident in the dojo. The martial arts master had put Ariana and Graeme with some of his top students to assess their proficiency levels. She had enjoyed having new people to spar and hadn't given it a thought – until it was over and she realized that she'd put the strongest of Midori's brothers through a wall. The boys were still as polite as ever but it was almost as if they were afraid of her. Graeme suggested giving them some time to get over the shock and Midori's party seemed like the perfect diversion.

The other girls were an assortment from Ishimura and some early arrivals from China. Ariana was looking forward to it; Angela and Sata were all right, Elisa and Fox were both cool, and Red Wind, Lexington's mail order bride, was nice enough when she could be pried away from her computer but Ariana had always regretted not being in a large clan with girls her own age. Midori's emails were always cheerful and full of stories about her rookery siblings.

Midori began the evening by having everyone contribute a favorite treat to the feast. One of her rookery sisters prepared the most exquisite sushi while another cooked beef and chicken yakitori over a small charcoal grill. _Mochi_, rice-cakes filled with sweet red bean paste shared the table with candied walnuts and sweet potato dumplings. Ariana's contribution was a gift box of Broadway's best cookies and Elisa's jalapeño fudge. It was fun watching everyone taste it and try to guess the secret ingredient. Finally, Midori tapped her chopsticks against an empty bowl.

"As you know," she began, standing before them in a Japanese flag t-shirt and low-slung sweats, "the Grand Miai will be held at the next full moon. It will be an opportunity for us to meet others our own age from other clans and hopefully to form new alliances."

"You mean to meet boys!" crowed one of the Ishimura crowd. Several of the girls around her giggled and whispered to each other behind their sleeves.

"If it so happens that romance blooms," Midori said coyly, "then consider it a blessing!" She laughed. "The planning committee has several formal events planned but we have been asked to come up with some social occasions of our own."

"Yeah," Ariana spoke up. "If we leave it up to the guys, it'll be one sporting event after another. I don't mind having a friendly martial arts competition but I talked to Toshi yesterday and he's planning a multiple elimination baseball tournament." She shuddered and others copied her. 

"But you love baseball, Ari-_chan_!" Midori exclaimed.

"Yeah, but I didn't come all this way here to sweat!" Everyone laughed at her joke and Ariana continued. "Maybe we could have each clan do something as an icebreaker. I know that the London Clan is going to do an excerpt from "Much Ado About Nothing" – it's a Shakespeare play that they've adapted for their drama group."

"That's a thought," Midori said, typing that up on a laptop. ""We could make it into a cultural event. We practice many traditional arts here in Ishimura and I'm sure the other clans do the same."

One of the Chinese girls raised her hand shyly. "We do a skydance in my clan called 'The Winding Dragon.' It's based on a traditional Buddhist lion dance." 

"That would be excellent, Kwan Lin," Midori said, bowing to her guest. "In fact, a skydance exhibition would be something that everyone would enjoy."  

"And something modern!" one of the Ishimura girls cried out. "Let's do a J-pop party with music and videos!"

"We could pick out the tunes right now!" replied another and several girls headed for the stereo. The booming of the music soon drowned out any further conversation but Midori seemed satisfied with the feedback that she'd received. 

"I really like the idea of that play," Midori said loudly in Ariana's ear. "How'd you hear about it? From Graeme?"

"Him? Please?" Ariana snorted. "Graeme's so full of Lucy when he gets off the phone with her, he drifts like a helium balloon. We practically have to tether him down." She laughed. "No, I was invited to be in it. I always get a part in their plays when I'm in London so Brock sent me a script. Do you want to see it?"

"But of course!" Midori followed her into the smaller antechamber where it was less noisy. "I hope Toshi didn't bore you last night. I asked him to show you around, not play baseball with the hatchlings!" 

Ariana laughed ruefully. "I didn't mind. He did introduce me to a lot of nice guys and the kids weren't so bad. You forget that I only had Graeme to play with growing up." She hunkered down to dig through her backpack.

While she was busy, a few more girls passed through the room to congregate in the garden. They were giggling and gossiping amongst themselves as they settled on the benches outside the window.

"'Didn't come all this way to sweat!' Ha!" 

"Did you see her at the dojo? Giggling and playing up to the boys, even after she'd beaten them?"

"As if any of them would be interested," the speaker drawled, her voice leading into a malicious snicker. "It is a shame that a beauty like the Ancestress should be cursed with such a _busu_ for a daughter."

Her friends all laughed as well. "A great pity! Perhaps that is why the poor girl spends so much time training, to hide her ugly face!"

It was the first time that she'd actually heard her own words spoken by somebody else. Her fists twisted in the tough fabric of her backpack as Ariana fought the urge to hurt those gossipy girls, just as much as they were hurting her. However, Ariana knew that a samurai must resist such urges; she reminded herself that she was above such pettiness and that if she ever lost control, she could easily kill someone.

"She does have excellent taste in clothes. Did you see the beautiful dress she arrived in?"

"It just goes to show that you can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear – eeeeerrrrr!!"

The cruel speaker's words ended in a screech as Midori upended a basin of dishwater out of the window on her. "If you thoughtless girls are finished insulting our guests," Midori said in a cold fury, "you may begin cleaning up. You do NOT want me going to the elders with this."

Ariana took a deep breath and began to pile things back into her backpack. A hand dropped onto her shoulder and she looked up into Midori's distraught face. Tears were rolling down her friend's face as she searched for something to say.

"Don't," Ariana said softly. "It's not anything that I haven't already heard."

"But—" Midori dropped to the floor besides her. "It isn't right, to say such things about you. They are just stupid, heartless, horrible girls."

"Why not? It's true!" she said bitterly. "Do you know that most of the time that I was with Toshi, he was talking about you like I was just one of the guys? And it's not just him!" She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "It makes me wonder what I'm even doing here." Taking a ragged breath, she screwed her eyes shut and turned her face away. "No guy is ever going to see past this beak!" Her shoulders began to shake.

Silently Midori wrapped her arms around her and hugged her tight while Ariana dropped the tomboy act and let herself cry. "Ari-_chan_," she whispered, "You are my dearest friend and I love you but I do not how to make this right. You cannot change who you are or what you look like and I wouldn't want to you try."

"Just once," Ariana said haltingly, "I'd like to be judged not for whose daughter I am or what I look like but just for me." She sighed deeply and stood up. "If it's all right with you, Mi-_chan_, I think I'll go. I'm not going to be very good company tonight."

"I understand, Ari-_chan_," Midori replied. "It will be all right, you'll see."

It was a short glide from the pavilion to the suite of rooms that Sata had been given in the east tower of the compound. Ordinarily, most gargoyles lived communally but Ishimura took great pride in their role as hosts and allocated private quarters to all of the visiting clans. Their rooms were spacious, not so much due to Sata's status but to having only four occupants. Ariana knew that Graeme was likely to be over at Xanatech labs but the privacy she so desperately wanted wasn't to be. She just had time to change clothes to a high-necked sleeveless black shirt and cargo shorts when her parents walked in, clearly intent on enjoying some privacy of their own by the way they had their arms around each other.

"Ariana?" Brooklyn raised his brow ridges in surprise and pulled away from Sata like he'd been up to mischief. "Aren't you supposed to be at a party or something?"

"I was," she answered, stuffing the clothes she had been wearing in her backpack. "I decided to come back early."

Brooklyn and Sata glanced at each other and exchanged a silent communication unique to parents. Sata immediately took a seat and looked expectantly at her daughter. It was a look that Ariana knew well and dreaded – a prelude to the notorious 'Let's have a talk' conversation.

"Well?"

"You might as well get it over with, sweetheart," Brooklyn said lightly. "She'll find out eventually, you know that."

"I'm fine, really!"

"Uh-huh." Brooklyn smirked at Sata. "You work her over, I'll get the rubber hoses."

Ariana gave her father a dirty look. "Why is everything a joke with you? This isn't funny!"

"Brooklyn-_san_," Sata said sternly, "that's enough." She turned her attention to her daughter. "Something is on your mind, Ari-_chan_. There has been ever since we arrived but I haven't had the time to ask you about it."

"Mother," Ariana sighed as she flopped into a neighboring chair, "haven't you noticed? Everyone's pairing off but me."

"Ari-_chan_, you mustn't take this so hard," Sata said soothingly. "I was much older than you when I met your father. We cannot be as lucky as Graeme-_kun_ and have love fall in our laps." She smiled at her daughter. "Sometimes waiting for what fate brings us makes it all the sweeter."

"Except for Agnes over in London, I'm the only girl with a beak that I know." She glanced at Brooklyn ruefully. "I wish I didn't look so much like Dad."

"I've always thought that Brooklyn-_san_ was very handsome but then I'm biased." Sata studied Ariana for a moment, noting the unhappy look in her eyes. "The way you look makes you special, Ari-_chan_. You are a skilled warrior, an accomplished actress, and you are my daughter. Is your appearance more important than that?"

"It seems to be to other people." Ariana shrugged and looked away. "Midori and I overheard some girls making fun of me."

"You didn't hurt them, did you?"

"I wanted to but Midori took care of it." She smirked. "She dumped the dirty dishwater on them."

"Good for her!" Brooklyn chuckled. 

"I just wish I wasn't so different," Ariana said, staring at her toes. "Washi was telling me about the Tengu and why they left Ishimura. I wonder if this is how they felt."

"You know," Brooklyn began, "I once asked Takakage what it meant to him to be a Tengu. He said that it meant that they were noble beings and that their appearance was inconsequential as long as their lives had purpose." 

Ariana blinked. "You MET Takakage? The original Tengu?"

"I don't know if he was the first, but yeah." Brooklyn reached over and stroked Sata's hair. "That was back in the twelfth century, right before I married your mother." 

"Really? What did you think of him?"

"He was okay, considering he was running with a bad crowd but he managed to straighten things out in the end. He just needed to find out where he belonged." He eyed his daughter shrewdly. "You and Graeme have been growing apart for the last few years. He's been busy with his university studies and work and I think you've just been feeling a little lost without him. Maybe it's time that you went and found your purpose."

"No matter how risky that might be?"

"Sometimes the risk is worth it," Brooklyn said, putting his arm around Sata. "Otherwise you and Graeme wouldn't be here."

"Meanwhile," Sata suggested, "Midori's party is still going on and I'm sure she'd like you to be there."

Grinning to herself, Ariana slung her backpack into place between her wings. She paused at the window to look back at her parents. "You know, Dad, sometimes you're really smart."

Brooklyn winked at her rakishly. "Hey, you know me -- I'm not just another pretty face."

* * * * *

Talking to her parents had given Ariana an idea. Brooklyn was right about one thing; sitting around moping about things was getting her nowhere – she needed to do something about it. Going back to the party wasn't an option – she would only be stared at and gossiped about more. What she had in mind required research and research required computers and computers meant Graeme.

The flight to Sendai City was a smooth glide down the coast from Ishimura. Xanatech had set up their offices in the center of an industrial park not far from the airport. Ariana had made the trip once already with Graeme and Toshi so it was simple matter to find the right building. Graeme had access to an upper level room with a wide window which he left open for emergencies. Following his trail was no effort at all.

She found him in a corner of the darkened computer lab with his earphones on while code scrolled by on three different monitors. The driving bass beat of the technopop he was listening to could be felt rather than heard. It wasn't surprising that Graeme's other senses made up for his auditory overload as his head went up and he sniffed the air like a bloodhound.

"Ari-_chan_? Is that you?"

Frowning, she crossed her arms over her chest. "What gave me away?"

"The smell of Elisa's jalapeño fudge! Sweet on the lips and spicy hot going down!" Graeme took off his earphones and swiveled around in his chair to face her. He'd ditched his formal clothes for a comfortable pair of jeans and one of his many vests. "How'd that go over? I gave some to Toshi and I thought he was going to explode!"

"All right, I guess. I left early." She leaned against the desk. "I need to get on the Internet. Got a spare workstation that I can use?"

"You're kidding, right?" Her brother looked down his beak at her. "What was wrong with the computers back at the compound?" 

"No privacy."

"Ah, gotcha." He led her out of the lab and into an office a few doors down. "I know what you mean – every time I tried to work in our rooms, Mom would show up with a new bunch of old aunties." He laughed. "I was starting to feel like a little green rooster at a hen party!"

"No chance of that happening tonight," Ariana commented as she sat down and began to log on to the computer. "Dad had Mom all to himself when I left."

"Oh, really?" Graeme smirked. "Were we invited to roost elsewhere?" 

"I certainly plan to." She squinted at the monitor and selected a search program. 

"Well, I'm going to check on my build. Are you going to be all right in here?"

"Peachy." Ariana became engrossed in her web surfing and barely noticed his departure. His return a few hours later, therefore, came as a surprise when he suddenly spoke up.

"So why are you interested in Osaka?" 

Ariana turned to see Graeme leaning against the doorway. He was gazing at her with a vaguely amused look on his face. "I'm going off to find the Tengu," she answered calmly. "Washi told me that they relocated in the mountains near there."

"Are you sure? There was a nasty earthquake in that area in 1995. Kobe had to practically be rebuilt from the ground up. They might have moved."

Glancing back at the screen, Ariana frowned. "Well…."

"Move." Graeme reached over and accessed his Xanatech account, opening an entirely different set of windows. Ariana relinquished her chair without protest; her brother knew far more about computers than she did and she knew it. A topographical map of Japan popped up and Graeme fine-tuned it to show a series of glowing dots.

"What's that?"

"This is direct feed from one of Xanatos' satellites. This one is in geosynchronous orbit over Japan. I'm isolating Hyogo prefecture at the moment… there." He pointed at the screen, tapping an area just above a large cluster of lights. "Here's the Rokko mountain range above Osaka and Kobe. At this time of night, most humans will be asleep but if there's any gargoyle activity, the infrared scan should pick it up." Typing in a set of commands, he leaned in as the map zoomed in and re-formatted. A smaller cluster of lights showed up farther north-west into the mountains, far from any marked human habitations on the map.

"There they are!" Ariana threw her arms around her brother's shoulders and rubbed brow ridges with him. "Graeme, you're brilliant!"

"Nonsense," he snorted. "You're the one that was looking. I just tweaked the parameters." He eyed her cautiously. "Were you serious about going to find them? What about the Grand Miai? Mother's probably expecting you to be involved in it."

"I need to do this, _oniisan_. I'm so tired of feeling like I don't fit in." Ariana sighed. "Mother doesn't need me and frankly, I'm sick being in her shadow."

"But you love training with her!" Graeme exclaimed. "You're a level above most of Kai's students. You have a talent for martial arts that I'll never have, _oniichan_. Don't cut yourself short!"

"I'm not! I just—" She bit her lip. "I just need to do this for me. You've got all this," she swept her arm around the office, "you know where you're going. I can't spend my life waiting for Mom to hand over her swords. I need to find a purpose in life and I think that it's going to start by finding the Tengu. Every time I hear the stories, my wings start to itch and my feet start wandering. It makes me want to go out into the world and make things happen." Cocking her head, she looked directly at him. "You know?"

For a few minutes, Graeme merely sat there and stared unblinkingly at her. He began to shake his head slowly. "I cannot believe I'm going to do this…"

"Are you going to try to stop me?"

"Nope." He stood up and pulled her in for a full-winged hug. "You were going to do this whether I wanted you to or not, _oniichan__ – _why else would you be dressed like Lara Croft?" He gestured at her sleeveless black top and cargo shorts. "I'm not about to let you go off on this adventure half-cocked and unprepared."

"Then you'll help?"

"Just a bit." He thrust a thumb at the screen. "I'll download the maps you'll need into one of my smaller computers to take with you. While I'm doing that, you'll need to go down to the employees' lounge and scrounge for supplies – bottled water and something to eat."  He glanced at her and shook his head. "It's like the old days – you're the go girl and I'm the man with the plan. Where would you be without me?"

Together the twins worked to get Ariana ready for her road trip. She had been planning to spend the night at the pavilion with Midori and the other girls so her backpack already had what Ariana considered the basic essentials – some clothes, her hair kit, several boxes of Pocky, her collapsible bo staff, chocolate bars, a compact high voltage taser that Fox had given her 'just in case a boy decides to get fresh', strawberry shampoo, and a can of pepper spray from Elisa ironically also 'just in case a boy decides to get fresh.' 

Graeme shook his head. "This isn't a backpack," he commented dryly. "It's a transdimensional pocket." He handed her a couple of water bottles and some ramen noodle cups that they'd found in the break room.

"It's all in how you pack," Ariana quipped as she shuffled the contents around. She stowed the taser and the pepper spray in one of her cargo shorts pockets; Graeme's palmtop computer was in the other.

"So, given any thought on how you're going to do this big adventure of yours, o sister mine?"

"I thought I'd hop a train," she said as she zipped up the bag. "The Tohoku Shinkansen runs right down the coast."

"Ari--!" Graeme threw up his hands. "You can't hop a bullet train, _bakachan_! The velocity would tear your wings off and the air pressure would compress your lungs. You wouldn't be able to breathe!"

"Oh." She frowned. "That's a shame because I was hoping to start tonight. The bullet train would be the fastest way to make some distance before I have to go into stone sleep." She stopped speaking because Graeme was walking around her and drumming his fingers on his beak. "What?"

"You know," he said thoughtfully, "you're sweet and petite. I'll bet if we poke a few air holes in it, you could fit inside one of those shipping crates that Xanatech uses for their computers."

Ariana curled up one side of her beak in disbelief. "You want to MAIL me?"

"It'll only take seven hours or so by my calculations to send a package to Osaka," Graeme said, an eager light coming into his eyes. "There's only an hour until sunup but if we pack you up all snug in a packing crate, you could snooze in stone sleep on the train and wake up in Osaka safe and sound."

"But--?"

"I'll mark it fragile so they won't put you on the bottom of a stack and for same day delivery so it would have to be there before sundown." He grabbed her hand and led her downstairs to the shipping bay before she could change her mind. 

As luck would have it, there were several large crates waiting on a wooden pallet. Graeme picked up an empty one from one of the racks and began to fill it with packing material. When it was half-full, he gestured to it with a flourish.

"Well, Cinderella… it's not a pumpkin but it'll do."

With some initial misgivings, Ariana caped her wings around herself and stepped delicately into the box. The Styrofoam packing crunched and squeaked as she settled in, curling herself around her backpack as she lay on her side. She watched as Graeme poked a few air holes in the sides. "You're enjoying this way too much," she observed tersely as he pour the rest of the packing around her.

"Don't you know that it's every brother's dream to stuff his sister in a box full of Styrofoam doodles and mail her somewhere?" Graeme grinned evilly as he started to lower the lid.

Ariana glowered at him. "You send me anywhere but Osaka and you'll regret it, buster!"

"Relax, _oniichan_ – as far as anyone knows, you're a computer shipment from Xanatech to be picked up at Umeda Station on the Hankyu rail line. It's the station closest to the mountains." He leaned in and kissed her on the beak. "If I don't hear from you in a few days, Ari-_chan_, I'm coming after you, okay? Those Tengu had better treat you right." 

She smiled back at him. "I wouldn't want it any other way. Bye, Graeme-kun."

"Kick tail, Ari-_chan_." Her brother gave her a shaky smile and shut the lid.

**Osaka******

The last golden rays of the summer sun slanted across the station floor as the sweepers criss-crossed it with their brooms between train arrivals and departures. Visible in the open doorway of the storeroom was a shipping crate on a roll away cart. The stationmaster checked the address label on it and then his watch. He'd been conscientiously watching for the owner of the package to arrive for most of the afternoon but no one had yet arrived and it was getting close to the end of his shift. He checked his watch again and frowned as he looked down the platform as the local commuter run from Kobe approached. If no one came when he was finished with this train, he concluded, he would definitely call the Xanatech main office.

Two minutes later, the decision was firmly taken out of his hands.

There were worse places to wake up, Ariana reminded herself. She'd been to most of them while she was still a child – war zones, desert islands, urban jungles, and one terrifying incidence as a toddler when she and Graeme had been separated from their parents. However, waking up in crate with a mouth full of Styrofoam doodles was definitely going down as one of her least favorite experiences. She spit them out and could still feel bits and pieces of them on her tongue. A sharp kick knocked off the side of the box and she rolled out onto the floor in cascade of packing material. 

There was a chorus of startled gasps and excited whispering. Ariana looked up to see a group of Japanese school girls in matching school uniforms goggling at her. Their chaperone was busy arguing with a station official so Ariana smiled and held a finger up to her beak. 

"Sssh!" Ariana whispered mischievously. She started to slip on her backpack when one of the girls pointed excitedly to the limited edition Sailor Senshi keychain hanging off of Ariana's pack. The girl brandished an identical one of her own and grinned. 

"Eternal Sailor Senshi Fan Club! Me too!!" Ariana crowed in sotto voce, ducking down so she was hidden behind the crowd of girls. "Look, I need to get out of here," she said quickly in Japanese. "Can you girls shuffle towards the exit and cover me?"

Delighted to be involved in something secretive, the girls quickly agreed and managed to sneak Ariana to a nearby gate right under the nose of their teacher.  A chorus of excited oohs and aahs accompanied her as the red gargoyle clambered up the side of the building. Ariana grinned and gave them the Sailor Senshi salute before swooping dramatically off into the night sky.

"I'll bet they'll be talking about that for days," she commented as she headed for the tallest building in Osaka to get her bearings. That turned out to be a fifty-six story hotel complex overlooking the harbor which had a panoramic view of the inland mountains. 

Perching on the edge of the building, Ariana took the palmtop computer out of the side pocket of her cargo shorts. She recognized the design – it was a LGX-1000, one of the first hardware designs that Lexington and Graeme had worked on. Xanatos had been so impressed with it that he had put it into mass-production for the new multi-species market. It was specifically designed for gargoyle use with wider keypads and more durable construction but many humans had also found it useful.

Sliding back the cover, Ariana booted up the compact computer. Graeme had made it simple for her – the icons for the maps were right on the view screen, along with an email and a digital dial-up. She smirked at those – it was Graeme's not-so-subtle way of hinting that he wanted her to stay in contact. Ignoring them, she popped up the maps and began to study them. She'd just gotten her bearings when the email program popped up with a NEW MAIL icon beeping at her.

"Honestly, Graeme!" Ariana rolled her eyes and opened the message. It was from her brother and all it contained was a link. She clicked on it.

The wireless Internet icon blinked and the small liquid crystal screen was filled with her brother's green-skinned face. He waved and it was at this point that Ariana noticed the small inset digital camera at the top of the screen. "You sneaky little—"

"Okay, I planted a prompt in the software so I'd know when you'd come online, so what?" Graeme spread his hands and shrugged, the motion looking strange and choppy over the internet line. "Everything okay? Where are you?"

Ariana looked over at a sign near the roof door. "I'm on top of the Rinku Gate Tower. It's a big hotel in Osaka," she answered. "It's a dinky thing, not even half the size of the Eyrie Building."

"Well, as long as it's got a good view. Have you gotten your bearings yet?"

"Yeah, I think so. That satellite map you downloaded has the Tengu pinpointed about thirty-five miles northwest of here. I'm going to grab a bite to eat and head out ASAP."

"Sounds good." Graeme looked around. "So, what am I supposed to tell the 'rents? Mom called last night and I said that you were roosting over here with me. That's only going to buy you a few hours."

"Relax," Ariana replied. "I saw Midori's schedule. There's a big committee meeting tonight and another one tomorrow. That's the beauty of it -- Mother's going to be busy to notice I'm gone!"

"Which is why," a singularly unamused voice announced off-camera, "I decided to glide over here to spend time with you guys." Brooklyn came into view and Ariana had a distorted view of his beak as he leaned towards the monitor to glare at her. "What's going on here? Where the devil is your sister?" 

Graeme winced as he cast a desperate look at the webcam. "Well, um, you see…"

"I decided to go looking for the Tengu, Dad," Ariana said firmly. "You said I needed to find a purpose in life. Well, this is it."

"I meant here!" Brooklyn bellowed, pointing at the floor. "Where are you?"

Ariana put on her most beguiling, wide-eyed expression. "Osaka."

"How on earth did you get to the other side of Japan?"

"I, um, mailed her?" Graeme rolled back in his chair and threw up his hands in defense as Brooklyn turned on him. "Hey, I only aided and abetted. She was gonna do it anyway!!"

"Oh, shards!" Brooklyn sank down in a neighboring office chair. "This is my rookery mother getting even with me from beyond the grave." He ran a hand down his face. "Ariana, what possessed you to do this? Sata's going to lay an egg when she hears about this!"

"Dad…," Ariana drawled as she took a more comfortable seat on the edge of the building. "Do you remember what I said to you and Mom last night?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I've been feeling restless and unhappy for the longest time." She paused and looked pensively at the city spread below her. "I need to spread my wings, Dad, or I'm not going to go anywhere. I just can't stand it any more."

"Couldn't you just spread your wings here?" Brooklyn said plaintively. "Ari-_chan_, if something goes wrong –"

"I'll handle it," Ariana said firmly. "Dad, did you and Goliath declare in front of everyone in the clan that I was an adult last year or not?" She narrowed her eyes at the web cam.

Brooklyn made a curious whining growl under his breath. 

"Haven't I just been through a nasty little crime war with Thailog and his goons?" she continued. "Where, I might point out, I was on regular patrols where I held my own with the worst that they could throw at us?"

Graeme, who had been keeping quiet, cleared his throat. "She's got a point, Dad." He winced at Brooklyn's pained expression. "Look, as long as Ari-_chan's_ got her time tracker on, I've got a direct link to her and that palmtop she's using has a built-in GPS receiver – if she gets in trouble, we can find her."

Ariana gaped at the device in her hand. "You put a tracker in this thing?!"

"No – it came as part of the standard hardware package."

"You were planning to spy on me!"

"SomeBODY has to keep an eye on you!"

"Enough!" Brooklyn said forcefully to cut through the bickering. "Look, you're already there so it'd be stupid for me to come after you now. If you're going to look for the Tengu, I'll give you a week to find them. That'll give you plenty of time to get back to Ishimura for the Grand Miai – agreed?"

"And if something happens and I can't?" Ariana asked, raising her chin.

Graeme leaned forward. "Dad and I will come after you."

"Because your mother won't be speaking to either of us if we don't," Brooklyn added sourly. "I have no idea how I'm going to explain this to her."

"It's a deal!" Ariana smiled winsomely at the webcam. "I'll be fine, you'll see! Love you, guys!!" She blew kisses at the screen and dropped the link before any of them could change their minds. The email alert blinked angrily at her but she ignored it. She slapped the palmtop shut and tucked it neatly in her pocket. 

"Right," she said as she shifted her backpack into place between her wings, "You wanted adventure, girl? Let's get to it!" She took one last look around Osaka before diving off into the night.

* * * * *

"Oh, shards!" Ariana said disgustedly, wishing she could think of more colorful way to express her frustration. It had taken most of the night to get into the mountains and the first thing she'd discovered was that taking a reading from a satellite map was not the same as trying to get one's bearings in flight. She'd nearly gotten hung up on the cables of a suspended cable car, narrowly avoided a work crew repairing a bridge, and had to detour around several campsites. Finally, she put down at a temple shrine halfway along the Rokko mountain range.

"'Dairyuji Temple,'" Ariana read on a bronze marker besides a stone pathway, "'originally built in 1585.' Huh, it's younger than Mother." She looked over the temple grounds at the tile-roofed buildings and wide-spreading trees sheltering them. "It's no wonder I can't find anything from the air. These trees are enormous – it's practically a rainforest in here!" She walked around the complex, stopping briefly at the shrine to clap her hands twice to invoke the spirits and bow her head respectfully. If there was one thing she'd learned in her travels, it never hurt to pay homage to the local customs.

A colorful flyer, forgotten by some tourist earlier in the day, tumbled by in the evening breeze. Ariana slapped her tail on top of it as it sailed by and picked it up to put it in the trash when a glimpse of a map caught her eye. While she spoke Japanese fluently, Ariana had never gotten the hang of the written form so most of the text was indecipherable to her but many of the place names on the map had English subtitles. She quickly managed to find her location and as she traced her route with a delicate talon tip, a word jumped out at her.

"Tengumichi Path," she mused out loud. "'The way of the Tengu.'" Ariana grinned over her shoulder and looked at the long steep trail leading up to Mt. Maya and away from the temple. "This looks promising." She adjusted the straps on her backpack and headed up the hill.

It was more strenuous trekking up the steep trail than it would have been gliding but Ariana was fascinated by the sub-tropical forest around her. Out of respect for their religious significance, logging and urban development had been severely restricted around temple sites and it was evident in the tall oak and laurel trees that towered over the under canopy of evergreens and flowering rhododendrons. The rough granite steps beneath her feet were ancient and hand-carved. She kept hoping to find signs of a gargoyle's talons on the weathered stones but centuries of foot travel had worn them smooth.

Finally she reached a handy trail marker printed in both English and Japanese. According to it, the original Tenjo Temple had been established in 646 but had burned to the ground in 1976. The locals had re-located the shrine to the summit of Mt. Maya. Ariana frowned. "I could continue on," she mused, "and go up to see what's on the summit or—" she turned to follow the signs of burn growth on the trees, "—I could go check out the original site. It's been there a lot longer and now that the human visitors are headed up to the summit, it's got to be a lot more appealing to a secretive bunch like the Tengu." 

Ariana drummed her fingers on her thigh while she thought about it and studied the overgrown trail leading away from the main path. There were little strips of nylon ribbon tied in the bushes. She plucked one from a thorny bramble and studied it, wondering what the Japanese printing said on the end of the safety orange streamer.

A sudden rush of night birds made the choice for her and she shoved the ribbon in her pocket. Ariana slowly reached back and took out the collapsible bo that was sticking out from the top of her backpack. The back of her neck was starting to prickle and that was always a bad sign. In one smooth move, she flipped her bo staff out to full length and locked it in place with a twist. 

"Right," she said coolly. "Let's check this out."

Trekking through the forest at ground level was a lot harder than it looked; Ariana found herself fighting tangled creepers and twisted vines as she followed traces of the path that had once led to the original temple. There were still traces of crushed gravel beneath the layers of fallen leaves and undergrowth. It had a strange texture that Ariana couldn't identify but seemed familiar. Finally, she burst through a copse of young trees into a clearing.

"Wow."

It was a woefully inadequate word. Spread out before her was a wide, gravel-strewn circle dotted here and there with large, strangely-shaped boulders. Their placement was seemingly random but Ariana was struck by its similarity to the Zen garden back at Ishimura. She could see where the gravel was swirled around the massive stones. Beyond that was a steep drop and the roar of fast-moving water below. She skirted the edge of the clearing; crossing it would have been simpler but she felt it would be sacrilegious somehow.

A huge slab of rugged granite was jutting out over a gorge fifty feet below. Ariana could feel the cool spray from a series of cascading waterfalls plummeting from farther up the mountainside. She spread her wings and swooped down into the gorge in order to loop up to perch on top of the massive rock. The view was amazing – she could see the whole mountain range from the highest peak to the rushing white water far below her.

"What a view!" Ariana commented to herself. "The trip is almost worth it just for this." She took a moment to stretch and made a disheartening discovery. "Eeeuw! What is in my hair?" Leaves and small twigs from her trek through the underbrush had gotten tangled in her waist-length locks. "I knew I should have put it up in a ponytail or something," she grumbled as she pulled her hair kit out of her bag. It unrolled to reveal two combs, a brush, collection of hair ornaments, and other things. She selected a wide-toothed comb and got to work smoothing out the tangles. 

Normally she found combing out her hair to be very soothing but after a while, Ariana realized that the prickle on the back of her neck had increased. The little night sounds that she'd grown accustomed to had ceased – gentle twittering of night birds, rustle of the treetops, and the falling water in the gorge – it had all become diminished as her senses refocused. Ariana rolled her kit back up and replaced it in her backpack. She concentrated, trying not to telegraph her moves as she sniffed the air for random scents. Whoever it was, they were staying upwind but there were traces of movement in the trees. She tucked her wings to put on her backpack and stood up, her bo held loose but ready in her hand.

Walking towards the treeline, Ariana cocked her head to one side. "I know you are there," she said simply. "I mean no harm to this place. I am traveling from the lands of the Ishimura clan to seek the Tengu." She hoped the formality of her words would have the required effect. 

The leaves in the trees whispered around her as if stirred by the drifting moonlight. A quiet if gruff voice answered her. "You travel a long way, young one, if you have come all the way from Ishimura." 

"It is a journey worth the risk," she replied, "and I am not afraid of danger."

"Indeed." The word was said with a hint of wry humor. Footsteps crunched in the underbrush behind her. "Why do you seek the Tengu?"

"I seek their wisdom."

"No, you don't – no one comes just for wisdom." She could feel the humid air stir as he came closer and his words took on a cruel tone. "Speak plainly – you come because you want to hide from the world. I've seen it before, foolish hatchlings like you who think that they're too different, that they're too ugly, and that no one will ever love them." His taunts cut her to the bone but she let the icy calm of her bushido training fall over her. He was close, very close – she could smell the musky scent of warm leather. "The Tengu have no use for warriors that don't have the heart to face their own destinies! Go back home, girl – I have no time for you!"

Whirling, Ariana lunged at him with her bo staff, the blow catching him across the forearms as he blocked her move. She focused totally on his movements as he went on the defensive. He may have had the greater strength but she had been under Sata's training since birth. It was hard to get a good look at her opponent as she drove him back into the trees – all she could tell about him was that he was roughly Goliath's size and his skin was a mottled green that nearly disappeared in the shadows.

 "You know," she snarled, "I'm getting really sick and tired of people talking to me like that." She leaped up, twirling around her staff and kicking him in the chest. "If you think I'm going to take that from you, think again!" A split-second movement out of the corner of her eye and her backswing caught him on the side of the head with a rattling crash. He stumbled and came up with a drawn tachi – a curved long sword nearly half Ariana's height.

"You show spirit," her opponent said bitingly. "But can you show skill?"

Ariana smirked. "Hey, do gargoyles duel in the woods?" 

He made a peculiar huffing sound and charged. Sparks flew as his tachi shrieked along the edge of her bo as she pivoted with his attack. They circled and weaved intricate patterns of parries and lunges around each other. He kept trying to draw her into closed spaces beneath the trees but Ariana was used to the concrete canyons and narrow alleyways of New York City. Her smaller size worked to her advantage as she vaulted up tree trunks and attacked from above. She discovered that her opponent had an impressive rack of horns that protected his head like a helmet. The noise of her staff smashing against them seemed to irritate him. Grudgingly, she had to admit that he was more challenging than the fighters she'd sparred against in Ishimura. Under normal circumstances she might have found this fight enjoyable. 

"What's the matter?" she called out as she parried a volley of rapid sword strokes. "No more smart-mouthed comments?"

"You talk too much, girl," he shot back.

"Hey, you're the one that started this," she retorted. "If you were a little nicer to people, maybe you'd get more visitors." She danced in under his sword arm and gave him another hard love tap across the antlers.

His eyes flared and with an earsplitting roar, he swung his tenchi down at full strength. Ariana blocked it but the blade lodged in the locking mechanism of her staff. They tussled for a few minutes, grimacing at their jammed weapons but finally her opponent managed to jerk his sword free. Before Ariana could react, her bo came apart in her hands. She stared at it in disbelief.

"You broke my bo."

The unseen gargoyle gave a harsh laugh and sheathed his sword. "Go home, hatchling."

"You **BROKE** my bo!"

Before he had a chance to respond, Ariana struck with a one-two punch across his face. The two halves of her broken staff bounced off his skull as she twirled them around like a deadly juggler. She followed by driving both staves into his gut and whipping his feet out from under him as he doubled over. Ariana made a mental note to thank Fox for teaching her Filipino stick fighting – switching to a different fighting style seemed to have momentarily confused her opponent.

"Do you know how **LONG **I've had this one?" she yelled at him as she thrashed him with scissor strikes. "It was custom made for me, you _bakayaro_!" She drove him to his knees in her anger but it was a deception; scooping a handful of sand from the ground, he threw it into her face. She spluttered and stepped backwards but before she could recover, he pounced on her like great cat.

"So, little samurai girl," he growled softly as he pinned her to the ground, "it would seem someone has taught you well." As he spoke, two fleshy things like tentacles fell into her face. Sandy grit was making her eyes tear too much to see but she could tell that the things moved when he talked so they were somehow attached to his head. He leaned on her a little more and his weight forced air from her lungs. "Maybe I should teach you some other things as well, _neh_?"

Reaching out with her hand-like wing talons, Ariana grabbed the two dangling things in her face and yanked. Her opponent's eyes became two blazing white orbs and his agonized bellow shook the trees. Not waiting for him to recover, Ariana head butted him right in the throat and followed it up with a knee to the groin that turned nicely into a hip throw. She somersaulted over the top of him and sprang up to a three-point landing, digging in her side pants pocket for one of her little toys. 

A rush of displaced air warned her in time to pivot with the next attacker, a smaller male gargoyle with feathers. She grabbed him by the shirt and hurled him into the underbrush. Her hand came up out of her pocket to meet a second newcomer with a high-voltage taser. The third broadsided her from behind, tumbling her head-over-heels across the clearing. The taser went flying from her hand. Snarling, Ariana twisted free from his grip and ricocheted off a tree trunk to strike from overhead, landing both fists in a long-nosed face. 

Dusting her hands off, Ariana stood up and surveyed the three bodies lying in the dirt. They all appeared to be adolescent males, dressed in matching dark grey tunics. "Well, boys," she drawled, "that's Tic, Tac, and Toe to me."

"Game over." 

A large hand deftly pinched the nerve cluster in her neck and Ariana felt herself falling into someone's arms as her body went limp. A wave of vertigo swept over her as she began to fade away.

"Sensei! A thousand pardons! We didn't –"

"Do not concern yourselves, my students." There was a soft snort. "This one is trouble enough all by herself."

* * * * *

**Deep in the ****Rokko****Mountains******

The fragrant scent of ginseng tea tickled Ariana's nose. She groaned softly and rubbed her cheek against soft cover of a well-padded futon. Wiggling her fingers and toes and subtly stretching wings and tail, she determined that she had no injuries. Before she dared to open her eyes, a voice spoke.

"Ah, you're awake now, young one." 

Ariana opened her eyes slowly, feigning grogginess. She was in a traditional Japanese room – bamboo walls of translucent washi paper and a woven tatami floor. Shadows of activity and murmured voices hinted at village life outside. An elderly female gargoyle dressed in a dark kimono was kneeling by a small brazier and pouring boiling water into a tea bowl. Her dun-colored features reminded Ariana of a carved Noh doll – her rounded face was exaggerated and grotesque, but her white hair was as fine as spider silk and swept down her back to touch the floor.

"Where am I?" she asked tentatively. "Are you Tengu?"

The old female nodded and smiled kindly. "Come now, have some tea. It will refresh you." She offered Ariana a tea bowl. "I am O-tama, the clan healer. I have been instructed to bring you to the elders. It won't do to make them wait."

Anxiously as she sipped the tea, Ariana looked around and saw her backpack lying open against the wall. Her clothing was in a neatly folded pile next to it, along with her personal items. She frowned as she noted the absence of her palmtop and her weapons. "Do I have time to make myself presentable, _obaasan_?" She looked down at herself and began to brush anxiously at the dusty smudges on her black shirt. Her fingers paused as she touched her left arm and Ariana froze – her time tracker was missing. The one thing that she absolutely, positively couldn't let out of her possession partly because of the advanced technology it contained and partly because it was her link with Graeme. She covered her reaction by clicking her tongue at the state of her clothes.

Fortunately, her Tengu chaperon hadn't noticed. "That would be a good idea, young one," she answered, gesturing towards a basin of water and a soft cloth. "A good brushing and a quick wash will not take long."

With O-Tama's help, Ariana changed to a summer _yukata_, a lightweight cotton kimono in royal blue with a white carp pattern and tied with a wide white sash. She had packed it to wear at Midori's party but never had the chance. Her hair was easily piled in a loose twist and secured with a pair of ivory combs. Nodding her approval, the elder slid open the door and led her out into the compound.

There was a brief hush as Ariana stepped out of the house. Every eye was on her and for a moment she was reminded of the first time she had performed in one of Brock's plays in London. She composed herself and folded her hands like a proper maiden as she followed her guide through the compound. True to the stories she had heard, the Tengu were truly unique. Nearly all of them had beaks or muzzles, huge curling tusks or long pointed noses, and all them were staring at her. Ariana forced herself to recite the rules of bushido to calm herself.

They entered a large building in the center of the village. A dozen gargoyles were there, sitting on both sides of the room, separated by a dais where another gargoyle, clearly the clan leader sat. He resembled a venerable raven dressed in red robes. As Ariana got closer, she could see that he was quite old; he was slowly losing his feathers and dark leathery skin showed in balding patches over his head and shoulders. O-tama stopped and indicated a cushion on the floor. Ariana bowed politely to the assembly and knelt on the cushion, arranging her skirts neatly around her.

"I am Takamatsu, leader of the Tengu clan," he said as he delivered a courteous bow. "We are honored by your visit. Will you make yourself known to us?"

Ariana gave him the full formal bow, touching the tip of her beak to the floor in acknowledgement of his status. "I am Ariana, Takamatsu-_sama_," she answered formally. "I have come in search of the Tengu and their wisdom. I hope your clan will find me worthy."

Takamatsu nodded. "My elders and I have spoken with the ones who fought you at Tenjo Temple. You passed the first test, but be warned – there will be others."

"Your warriors were young," Ariana replied, "but they showed great promise. It was their teamwork that overcame me."

O-tama had settled in by Takamatu's side and she leaned over to whisper something to him. He nodded and continued to speak. "Ah, yes. Tancho, Takakura, and Mozo – our three warriors-in-training. You gave them quite a lesson in overestimating their opponent." He laughed and gestured to the right. "And you, of course, have met their teacher, Kirin." 

Ariana blinked up at the tall figure standing in the shadows. It was easy to see how he could blend so effortlessly into the forest; Kirin's leathery hide was a dappled green that formed his own camouflage and he wore a diamond-checked grey kimono over it like a shadow. A fiery cloud of hair fading from red-gold to white swirled around a variety of twisted horns protruding from the tangled locks. His facial features were broad and grotesque, a long ridged nose like a baboon, fleshy barbels drooping from the corner of his wide-lipped mouth like a fish, folded ears like a cow, and a long wispy beard on his chin like a goat. Most unusual of all for a gargoyle, his shins and tail were all draped with long, curling red-gold hair; it hid that fact that his feet were not three-toed but two-toed, resembling cloven hooves. Meeting his half-lidded eyes, Ariana could see the self-depreciating scorn evident there. The corner of his mouth twitched.

Refusing to rise to his challenge, Ariana merely arched her brow ridges. "Yes," she said mildly, "he owes me a new bo staff."

The elder seemed amused. "So I am told," he said simply. "Not many warriors can fight Kirin to a standstill. Who was your sensei?"

"I was taught by Sata of Ishimura."

Takamatsu raised his brow ridges and murmured to one of the others who scurried off but Kirin's round eyes flared angrily like hi-beam headlights. "Lady Sata is kami, a revered ancestor to the Ishimura clan! How dare you invoke her name!"

Ariana glared back. "She is still my teacher. You have proof enough of that."

"I cannot believe this!" Kirin snapped as his voice grew to a roar. "Have you no sense of honor or duty?"

"Be still!" Takamatsu glared at Kirin and then glanced back at Ariana. "You do not resemble the gargoyles of Ishimura. Where do you come from?"

"I was born in Manhattan," Ariana answered, adding silently _'or will be over a century from now.'_ "My family and I are here to represent our clan at the Grand Miai. It's a gathering of gargoyle clans from all over the world. As leader of the home clan, Kai-_sama_ is hosting it." She took a photo that Graeme had taken of her and Midori from her sash. "Here is a picture that was taken only a few nights ago at Ishimura."

Takamatsu examined the photo carefully for a moment and then passed it on to Kirin. The horned gargoyle took the photo from the elder and scowled furiously at it. "Yes," he finally said reluctantly, "this is the Shinto temple in the main compound. I'd recognize it anywhere."

"You're from Ishimura?" Ariana asked incredulously. 

"Yes, it is difficult to believe with his poor manners, isn't it? Kirin came to us nearly twenty years ago after the Great Earthquake," Takamatsu said as he took back the photo for another look. "He was a great help to us." The gargoyle that had left earlier returned and handed him a scroll. "Ah, thank you." He traced a column of kanji figures with a withered finger. "It was recorded in the clan scrolls that Lady Sata of Ishimura mated with a strange male in the twelfth century. A magical artifact in his possession caused them to disappear shortly after their wedding. The record keepers were advised to keep a watchful eye out for their return." He looked at her thoughtfully. "My ancestor, Takakage had his likeness copied into the records so that we might know him." He turned the scroll so all could see.

Ariana winced. It was in the classic Japanese style but it was an accurate portrait of her father fighting a Tengu with great curling tusks. The artist had even included the blue and gold shield of the Phoenix Gate tucked in his belt. Sata was in the background of the picture, fighting another gargoyle with a great sword. Everyone was looking from the picture to her and it was clear that she wasn't going to be able to keep her anonymity.

"My father, Brooklyn, will be flattered," she said calmly, hiding her true feelings. "It's a good likeness of him." She frowned and tilted her head. "However, Mother will be upset that she's been drawn using her swords in the wrong position. Sata always prefers the Kagamatsu-ryu style when countering an overhead sword stroke." 

"You bear a striking resemblance to your father," Takamatsu said slowly. "We Tengu do not pay much attention to the outside world but Kirin keeps irregular contact with Ishimura. There have been strange happenings since the turn of the century and it was always thought that your mother's return would herald a time of great changes. Was the magical object that Takakage described responsible for your return after so many years?" He tapped the image with a talon.

"Yes, the Phoenix Gate," Ariana said. "My father spent forty years traveling with it. Eventually we all did – my brother and I can't remember all the different places we went." She gave a little laugh. "Finally, the Phoenix Gate took us back to where Dad's adventures started and returning full circle to the beginning turned it to dust. We've been living in Manhattan ever since."

"But you are here," O-tama observed. "Why did you not stay in Ishimura?"

"And why did you not acknowledge your parents from the very beginning?" another elder with a face like a yellow turtle interjected. "Why do you not show proper parental respect?"

"This is my journey," Ariana said firmly, "not that of Sata or Brooklyn. I chose this path. My father supported my decision. I was given a week to search for you before I must return for the Grand Miai." She flicked a small glance at Kirin who had snorted rudely. "As for Ishimura, I do not entirely fit in there. One of the elders called me a Tengu maiden and told me roughly where to look for you so I decided to go." She shrugged. "What can I say? I've always been curious."

"Then—" Kirin eyed her skeptically, "—you're really the daughter of the Ancestress? You fought in her style?" He seemed interested in spite of his distrustful attitude.

"I said so from the very beginning." She rolled her eyes impatiently. "Haven't you been listening?"

"You fight like a bar room brawler." He stuck his chin out, his wispy beard jutting out like a goat's. "A true samurai would not resort to such tactics."

"Are you always so insulting to girls you just meet?" She glared at him. "Or is it just me?"

O-tama was wearing a little smile as she sat besides Takamatsu. She exchanged a brief look with her mate before she gazed demurely at her hands. Takamatsu cleared his throat to restore order. "It would seem that this young female made an impression on you, Kirin-san," he said blandly. "If she could hold her own with you, it would seem that she is worthy of consideration, _neh_?"

"There is the matter of the documents she was carrying, Takamatsu-_sama_," said an elder female with a parrot face. "Ask about them!"

"Ah, yes. Kirin, if you would?" The Tengu leader held out a sheath of papers in a slim plastic binder. 

Kirin strode over and took the papers as he sank to his knees on the floor. He read silently for a moment, his hairy eyebrows rising and falling as if they were separate living things. "It is written in English," he said slowly. "It would seem to be a literary work of some form."

Ariana rolled her eyes. "It's a script for a play."

"Really?" Takamatsu was interested. "Can you translate for us, Kirin?"

Twitching his fish-whiskered upper lip, Kirin scowled briefly at the page and said in Japanese, _"'What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?__'"_

On cue, Ariana retorted with Beatrice's line: _"'Is it possible disdain should die while she hath__ such food to feed it as Signior Benedick?__'"_ She raised a brow ridge at Kirin. _"'Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come into her presence.'"_

Kirin glared back. _"'Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I__ am loved of all ladies, only you as the exception,"_ he sneered, _"'and I__ would if I could find in my heart that I had not a hard__ heart; for truly, I love none.__'"_ He managed an arrogant growl in his words which Ariana knew couldn't be possibly contrived.

_"'A dear happiness to women,"_ she sighed dramatically in return, _"'or else they would have__ been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God__ and my cold blood, I am of your humor for that: I__ had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man__ swear he loves me.__'"_

Thrusting his goat-like chin out, Kirin said hotly, _"'God keep your ladyship still in that mind! So some__ gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate__ scratched face.__'"_

Ariana smiled sweetly. _"'Scratching could not make it worse, if t'were such__ a face as yours.__'"_ She gave a stinging little slap to her words and crossed her arms smugly over her chest as Beatrice would have done on stage, holding the pose for a few seconds before dropping it.

Kirin snorted and tossed the script to the floor in front of her. "It is harmless, Takamatsu-_sama_," he said dismissively. "One of Shakespeare's minor romantic comedies about love."

"You," Ariana exclaimed incredulously, "know Shakespeare?"

"I'm a teacher," he shot back. "I know many things."

"I thought it was very enjoyable," O-tama said pleasantly. "I would be interested hearing more of this play."

"Perhaps Lady Ariana and Kirin will grace us with a full reading another night," Takamatsu said magnanimously. "Tonight is nearly over. We should prepare to shelter for the day."

"Forgive me, Takamatsu-_sama_," Ariana said, bowing again to the floor. "Some of my things were missing when I woke. May I please have them back? You can see that I mean you no harm."

"No!" a squat elder with a face like a toad cried out. "Things from the human world are strictly forbidden here."

"Doryo is correct," Takamatsu said, regarding her sternly. "It is the Tengu way to exist without aid of technology. O-tama was careful to remove only mechanical things and, of course, your weapons. They have been put into our strong room. All will be returned to you when you are ready to leave."

"There is one thing that I must have!" Ariana shoved up the sleeve of her yukata and showed them her left arm. "I was wearing a black armband with red blinking lights, right here. I must have it back – it is a medical device. If I go into stone sleep without it, I might not wake up!" It wasn't entirely the truth but Ariana figured that the Tengu didn't need to know that. She let a tremor of panic creep into her voice. "Please!"

"Medical?" O-tama put her hand on Takamatsu's sleeve. "Child, are you ill?"

"It-It is complicated," Ariana stammered. "Before my brother and I were born, when my parents were traveling, my mother was exposed to a type of radiation—"

"Like Nagasaki?" another elder interrupted. "And Hiroshima?" The other elders began to whisper among themselves. It would seem that certain world events were still fresh in their memories.

Ariana nodded anxiously, now playing to a captive audience. "Yes, it was very similar. The radiation affected her, and in turn, affected my brother and myself. We were very sick when we hatched and we nearly died – except for the help of some human doctors who saved us." She pointed at her arm. "My brother and I have always worn these armbands. It monitors our condition, administers medicine, and gives us a normal life. It will not harm you but I must have it back, please!"

"You seem well enough now," Kirin observed, narrowing his eyes. 

"As we grew older, our bodies adapted to our condition so that we could go for brief periods without it." She pressed her hand to her forehead and frowned dramatically. "I'm only a little feverish now but it won't be long before I have other symptoms."

"True," O-tama spoke up. "When I was tending to her earlier, I noticed that her body temperature was higher than ours." She gave her husband a severe glance. "The risk to her health is too great. As clan healer, I say that we allow Ariana-_chan_ to keep the device."

 "Kirin-_san_," Takamatsu said, turning towards him, "you have examined all of the things confiscated from our guest. What is your opinion?"

The tall gargoyle puffed out his upper lip, making him look like a gulping fish. "The armband might be what she says it is," Kirin admitted. "I have seen humans use similar devices. However," he glared at Ariana, "the miniature computer and the weapons stay in the strong room."

Takamatsu glanced around at the assembled elders, several of whom nodded. "Very well," he said formally, "it is agreed that we will make an exception this one time and allow you the medical device."

Ariana beamed and bowed fervently. "Thank you, honored leader! Thank you, revered elders!" She worried for a moment that she might be laying it on a bit thick but as Brooklyn had once observed; one could not possibly overdo etiquette and formalities with the Japanese.

Kirin returned with her armband and handed it over. "There is a light flashing on it," he observed. "It was not doing that before. Why?"

"It's a warning alarm because the monitor can't sense me," Ariana lied smoothly as she tapped a tiny dimple on the side with her talon tip. In reality, an alarm had gone off on Graeme's armband and her brother was checking up on her. "See? I'll reset it." O-tama was leaning forward with great interest as Ariana tapped in the 'all safe' sequence and Graeme stopped transmitting. She showed the display to O-tama. "Each row of lights indicates a different function – pulse, temperature, blood pressure, and medication level."

"Amazing!" O-tama seemed suitably impressed. "And healers have been using these things?"

"Not so much in gargoyles, but humans have been using them to treat diabetes and other diseases for decades." Ariana slid it back in place on her arm. "That's better." She laughed self-consciously. "I've been wearing it for so long, I feel naked without it."

Takamatsu cleared his throat. "Now that the matter is settled," he announced. "We should get the camp in order. This meeting is over."

Immediately, all the Tengu rose and went their separate ways. O-tama took Ariana by the elbow and began to usher her from the room. "Since many humans travel in these mountains by day," she explained, "we take special precautions to secure the area. The perimeter is planted with thick brambles to keep out the less adventurous but we do not like to take chances. I will show you where you can put your belongings for the day." 

"All right. I'll change back into my traveling clothes then and keep this for nice," Ariana said, indicating her yukata. "I've never been comfortable going into stone sleep with my good clothes on."

"Be quick about it then," O-tama said, as she slid open the door. "I need to tend to a few things but I will return for you."

Safely inside the room, Ariana quickly changed her clothes and stashed everything back into her backpack. There was a sudden vibration on her armband and she grimaced. "Graeme…" She peeped out the door but everyone was hurrying about. "All right, Graeme," she said as she turned on the communicator function. "What'd you want, bro? Make it quick."

"Are you all right?" Graeme asked, his voice distorted by the distance between them. "You were off-line earlier."

"It's okay. They're big technophobes here and took my armband. I told them that it was a medical device and they gave it back."

"Medical?" Graeme laughed. "We haven't needed the medical functions in years!"

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Ariana heard footsteps crunching on gravel. "Someone's coming. Bye!" She switched off the communicator and was zipping up her backpack when O-tama opened the door. 

"I thought I heard voices," the healer said curiously.

"I was running through my checklist," Ariana said glibly. "I hate to leave anything behind." She stood up with her pack in hand. "So where do you want me?"

O-tama led the way. "We do not pose like most gargoyles," she said as they walked through the camp. "Tengu have always kept themselves secret. We hide beneath our wings—"

"—so that any humans that stumble across you only see a bunch of rocks," Ariana finished for her. "I've had to do that a few times. No problem!" 

They were heading for a deep fissure in the mountainside, surrounded by what at first glance appeared to be scree from an old rockside. A closer look identified it as roughly crushed stone skin. "This is the opening to our rookery. You may put your bag inside and take a place out here." She nodded at the gargoyles approaching. "Kirin and his students roost here, to guard our eggs from intruders. He will tell you what to do."

Ariana bit back the sarcastic comment she had for that and put a pleasant expression on her face instead. Kirin scowled at her but his students, the three young males that had attacked her earlier, were looking her over curiously. The shortest and shyest one resembled a crested bird with a semi-human face. The tallest was thin and lanky like a stork with a face that looked like it had been melted and re-formed into a comic puppet. His curved nose, rounded cheeks, and high-arched brow ridges looked too exaggerated to be real and he wore a black skullcap with stylish panache. The last reminded Ariana vaguely of Brooklyn; he had the same slouchy cockiness that she associated with her father. He was ruddy-skinned with black hair that draped rakishly against his forehead and would have had a handsome face with the exception of an indecently long nose and bulbous cleft chin. Just looking at him made Ariana uncomfortable and he knew it, staring directly at her far too long with a sneer dancing on his lips.

Kirin cuffed him on the back of the head. "Be polite!" he snapped curtly. "Rudeness is not acceptable."

"Yes, sensei," said the long-nosed one grudgingly as he rubbed his head. He gave Ariana a brief glare over his shoulder as if it was her fault and went to join his fellows.

"You," Kirin said, addressing her, "will stand here." He pointed to a spot a few feet to his left. "Be sure to keep your tail tucked in and take that off," he said as he pointed at the silver ring that she wore on one of her wing talons. "It will attract too much attention."

"Okie-dokie," Ariana said amiably to counter his foul mood. As she tucked her ring in her pocket, she couldn't help noticing what the other Tengu were doing. Their dwellings had been constructed from rough stone and tall plants had been planted to screen them from view. Various Tengu were taking up positions to protect their village. The curious thing was the behavior of the mated pairs – the females knelt upon the ground and the males encircled them both with their wings. She started to ask Kirin about it but her question went unasked when she saw the expression on his face. 

His eyes were haunted by a strange longing as he gazed over at O-tama and Takamatsu taking their places nearby. The clan leader nuzzled his mate's brow ridges affectionately. Sighing bitterly, Kirin turned away and caught her looking at him. He huffed angrily, narrowing his eyes at her and Ariana hastily turned her face to the sky. Her skin was starting to tingle with the approach of the sun. She dropped to a three-point crouch, draping her wings over her, and let stone sleep take her.

To be continued in Part II of **"Tengu"**

in the next issue of Avalon Mists.


	2. Tengu: Part 2

**Tengu**

**A TGS-based story**

**by**** C.S. Hayden**

Characters from the "Gargoyles" show are the property of Disney and Buena Vista Television. All other characters are from The Gargoyles Saga fanfiction series and the story "Yama's Path" by Kimberly Towle. 

**Part II**

**Deep in the ****Rokko****Mountains******

Ariana began her evening as she always did, by finding herself an out-of-the-way place to do her exercises. There was a small treeless field not far away, bordered by the steep mountainside on one side and a marshy area that Ariana's nose told her was bubbling with organic decay. She was willing to bet that there was a hidden bath house not too far away. There was a thin veil of grayish-green slime visible on the free-standing surface of the water. Fastidiously, she chose a spot far away from the sludge and began to stretch out her muscles.

The Tengu went about their business but she could tell they were watching. When she began her martial arts katas, many of them nodded approvingly as they recognized the moves and their interest began to wane. Her captor from the previous evening, however, remained behind. Kirin and his three students – Ariana had mentally labeled them Tic, Tac, and Toe – had claimed their own space nearby and the young males were going through their own exercises. Kirin kept after them, issuing orders but arrogantly keeping an eye on her as well.

Refusing to let his presence distract her, Ariana finished her basic routine and sank down on her knees to meditate for a few moments before starting her next set of her workout. She closed her eyes and straightened her back as she concentrated on her breathing. It was important to reach a state of thought-free concentration or _'zanshin'_ to begin her sword training. The form she had learned from Sata was called _'iaijutsu'_, a sword combat technique from the feudal era. Her mother considered the modern version, _'iaido'_, to be a pale imitation of true swordsmanship.

"Sensei?" one of the students asked after several minutes had gone by. "What is she doing?"

"Resting, noodle brain," one of the others answered. 

"Should we bring her some water?" the last one asked. "She is a girl and, um---" Ariana didn't need to open her eyes to hear the blush in that shy voice.

"She is clearly meditating," Kirin said brusquely. "You should focus on your own katas."

As soon as the grumbling died off, Ariana went into the first form, _nukitsake_ -- the drawing of the sword, visualizing the sword in her mind while she went through the motions. The key, Sata had always told her, was to make the sword so much of a part of you that you could feel it in your hand even when it was not there. She followed it with _kiritsuke_, a series of cutting and slashing techniques executed at various speeds; ending it with _chiburi_, a pantomime of shaking blood from the blade, and at last completing the exercise with _noto_ as she sheathed her invisible sword. Ariana sank back down to her knees, drenched in sweat.

"Hmmm." 

She looked up to see Kirin regarding her thoughtfully. 

"Bring the practice swords," Kirin ordered and the smaller of the three, who Ariana had mentally labeled as 'Toe,' scampered off to do his bidding. "It has been some time since I've had chance to test my swordsmanship. We will see just how good you are."

"That would depend on how good you think you are," Ariana replied tartly as she got back on her feet. 

"Kirin-_san_?" O-tama paused as she and Takamatsu were crossing the compound. "What are you doing?" The silver-haired healer glanced between him and Ariana as worry crossed her face. "Surely you don't mean to challenge her?"

"You should've seen them last night," said the long-nosed one that Ariana called 'Tac'. "She almost beat sensei using only a bo staff."

Takamatsu looked interested. "It was a good match?"

"She knows how to fight," the last one, 'Tic' commented. He grinned like a clown. "It took all of us to bring her down."

"As it should be for one who was taught by the legendary Sata of Ishimura." Takamatsu sat down on a bench that Tic brought over to him. He glanced over at O-tama who had pulled Kirin aside and was whispering urgently to him. "Do not fret over her, _aisai_. Let Kirin test her skills here, properly before witnesses. He will not harm her."

Returning with a basket of wooden practice swords, Toe trotted over to her and let her examine them. She picked out one and swung it tentatively but discarded it for its poor balance. Glancing at her shyly, Toe held out a pair of swords made from a dark, finely-grained wood. They had been oiled recently and although they had many nicks and scratches, someone had treated them with great care. She gave the katana a few sweeping strokes and while the balance wasn't perfect, it was close enough. Smiling gently, she turned to Toe and said, "Thanks – you know your swords!"

The crest of dark feathers on Toe's head rose dramatically as he smiled back. He stumbled over his own feet as he took the basket over to Kirin, who chose a tachi-length bokken for himself. He swished it though the air with a sharp hiss and paced out an area to duel in, placing his students on three of the corners. Gesturing to a red-faced, broad-chested male with wide-curling tusks, he called him over. "Goro-_san_! Will you referee the bout?"

"Of course, Kirin-_san_!" Goro took his place on the remaining corner, bowing his head curtly at their guest. "You can be assured of a fair bout."

Ariana watched the proceedings as she loosened up her shoulders. "Standard tournament rules?" she inquired. "Although, somehow I don't think we're playing for points."

"Win by knockout or forcing your opponent from the ring," Kirin said as he began circling. "No hits to the face."

She smirked and matched him in circling. "Afraid of losing your boyish good looks, are you?"

"Hardly," he shot back. "O-tama seems to think you're a delicate flower." For a gargoyle of his size, Kirin was surprisingly light on his two-toed hoof-like feet as he sized her up. The fur covering his lower legs helped muffle the sound of his footsteps so Ariana focused on his chest instead. 

"Right," she drawled coolly as she shifted her blades into first position, "bring it on, tough guy." 

Goro moved to the one side, standing with one hand pointed outwards, as if to separate the two from each other. "Opponents, face me..." Together, they both turned and faced him, offering a bow of respect. "Face each other..." Turning towards the center of the ring, they again bowed, with Kirin never breaking eye contact with Ariana. "Ready?" Glancing at each one for a brief moment, Goro made a sharp chopping motion with his hand, cutting the air before backing away from the two fighters. "Begin!"

At once, Ariana darted forward with both bokken swept out to the sides for balance. Kirin pushed off on his hooves, bringing his own weapon into position for an overhead strike. Before they would have collided in the center of the ring, Ariana dodged right under his swing, bringing the wooden wakizashi up to hit Kirin in his midriff.

Not surprisingly, Kirin flipped his sword into a vertical parry that took the blow with a loud resounding crash that echoed around the surrounding mountainside like a gunshot. His follow-up swing would have struck Ariana in the back, but she twisted as she passed, bringing the other bokken to counter his counterblow.

"A backhand block -- well met!" he said as he pulled back into a low crouch and brought his sword out and level with the ring floor. It was a move so classic that Ariana couldn't believe that he'd actually use it.

"Oh, please!  A hatchling could see that feint coming a mile away!" Ariana pivoted on one leg, her tail flaring out for balance as she held her wakizashi up to shield, while the katana she held poised to strike with an overhead stroke.

With a wry lift of an eyebrow, Kirin commented, "So you think." He lunged forward, using his hand to brace as he swept his tachi at her feet. When she leapt over the swing, he reversed it and swept up into her midsection.

Forced to block, Ariana brought both swords down to bat his strike away, driving his sword onto the mat. With both of her bokken braced against his, she reversed her grip on the hilts and used them to flip herself over her still-crouching opponent to land behind him. Out of reflex, Kirin aimed a kick behind him, but Ariana had moved out of range before turning to face him again. 

Huffing and blowing out his fish-whiskered lip, Kirin went on the offensive with a combination of strikes and thrusts. He was relying on his strength and his longer reach while Ariana was clearly more agile and quick. She met his attacks with the appropriate blocking moves and for a time, it seemed that the match was to be a textbook demonstration of classic moves. 

"Hey!" Tac called from the sidelines. "What you waiting for, sensei? This is beginner stuff!" His brash comment led the other Tengu, who had been watching silently, to raise their voices as well.

Kirin executed a perfect _happo__ giri_, a cutting maneuver in eight directions that was formerly used for dismembering corpses. Impressed that he could do it with the longer tachi blade, she managed to block it and dance nimbly out of range before he could follow up with another attack. She ran through her available tactics in her head; Kirin knew the classic _iaijutsu_ forms nearly as well as she did. Fortunately, Sata had not been her only teacher. It was amazing what one could learn from an ex-mercenary and a New York City cop.

Coolly, as she viewed her opponent from a distance, Ariana inverted both her wooden blades and held them loosely at hip level. She held her head dipped to keep her beak from blocking her vision and breathed deeply though her nose, saturating her lungs with oxygen and building her adrenaline. Both Fox and Elisa both had emphasized the need to keep her energy levels up when fighting a stronger opponent. Ariana could tell that she was wearing him down and that her stillness in the heat of battle was confusing him.

"What?" Kirin called mockingly. "Giving up already?"

Ariana gazed at him with a disarming, sultry look that she borrowed from Fox. "I don't know," she retorted. "Are you?" The moment he began to open his mouth, she struck.

Blades flying like whirlwinds, she plowed into him at full speed, driving him across the playing field. Graeme had once compared her signature move to being dropped headfirst into a psychotic meat grinder. Blades, feet, wings, tail – everything was in motion. Ariana knew she'd gotten in several good hits by the time she skidded to a halt near Toe's corner of the playing field. She winked at him before turning back to face her opponent.

"Damn." His lip was bleeding but Kirin was looking at her with a startled, almost admiring expression. His eyes were glowing faintly and he smiled at her, not a bitter mocking leer but a genuine breathless wondering grin that, for a moment, washed away all the bitterness from his face. That brief glimpse lasted for only an instant and then it was gone. His nostrils flared like a bull's and he charged, mouth set in a silent roar and his tachi held low and dangerous. 

Ariana didn't wait but intercepted him in mid-field. Instead of blocking his upward slash, she jumped directly onto it and used to vault over him in a forward flip. She whacked him over the kidneys with a mid level strike. The end of his fur-tipped tail whipped around her right arm and before she could react, Kirin had seized her arm and hurled her like an Olympic hammer throw out of the ring. Ariana tried to whip her wings out and control her fall but she tumbled straight into the foul-smelling marsh with a resounding splash. 

"Kirin-_san_!!" O-tama shouted indignantly. "That was uncalled for!"

"The rules were clear," Kirin said calmly as he tried to control his heavy breathing. "Knock out or being forced from the ring. It is not my fault that she landed in the midden."

"It is within the rules," Goro said ruefully. He looked over at Ariana with an apologetic look on his boar-tusked face. "An excellent match, however. The ruling would have been very close."

Dripping with mud and slime, Ariana rose to her feet and strode deliberately over to Kirin, who was regarding her stoically. "Your bokken," she said between clenched teeth as she handed him the wooden practice swords. If he had only said something nice, apologized, anything -- she might have forgiven him. Instead Kirin let one side of his mouth turn up in an arrogant smirk as if he'd put her in her place. As she turned, Ariana pretended to slip and slapped her wings back hard to keep her balance. The sound of the loose sludge splattering a body at close range was most satisfying.

Ariana looked back. Kirin was covered with an impressive spray pattern of mud from head to toe. A big splash of it went across his brow ridge and was dripping off his snout. "Now," she said coolly, "we're even." She smiled sweetly and the look in his eye was pure, unadulterated murder. He spit to one side to clear his mouth, clearly wishing he was spitting on her.

O-tama intervened. "That's quite enough," she said firmly. "Ari-_chan_, you'd better come with me. If you had any scratches or cuts, that muck will get them infected. Kirin," she glared over her shoulder at him, "you can make do with the waterfall."

"Fine," Kirin said with a cold dignity, "I wouldn't want to share the bath house with her anyway." The grinding of his teeth was audible. "I'd be too tempted to drown her."

"Not if I don't hold you under first, you jerk," Ariana muttered under her breath.

"There, there," O-tama said maternally. "Kirin was rude and Takamatsu will make sure that he knows it." She led Ariana up the slope away from the fighting field and to a secluded hut sheltered by several red cedars. A series of salvaged pipes led to a weeping fissure in the steep mountainside. "We tapped into a spring," O-tama explained when she caught Ariana looking at it curiously. "It gives us fresh drinking water and supplies our bath house without our having to carry it in from the river." 

"O-tama!" One of the mated females came through the cedars with a folded bathing sheet in one hand and Ariana's backpack in the other. She was tan-colored with a slim beak and feathered wings tipped in black. "I thought you might need these." She bowed to Ariana. "Mozu brought your backpack out of the rookery. Is there anything else you require?"

"This is Miza," O-tama said, by way of introduction, as she brought a bucket of water out of the bath house. "Stay a moment, Miza, while I rinse off the worst of this muck." She looked apologetically at Ariana. "You'll have to kneel for me, young one. You're far too filthy to go into the bath house as is."

Sighing, Ariana submitted to the indignity of having several buckets of water poured over her head to sluice away most of the reeking mud. Miza held up a bathing sheet while Ariana stripped down and O-tama collected Ariana's clothes to be soaked in a basin with some fragrant herbs. Miza stayed long enough to help shampoo and rinse Ariana's hair but the young visitor was soon left alone to soak in the tub.

"Gods," Ariana grumbled, "what a pain Kirin is! I don't care what they say; he couldn't stand losing so he had to cheat to win." She sniffed her arm and grimaced. "Ugh, I'm going to smell this for days." Holding her nose, she ducked under the water. Her long hair, which had been draped over the side, slowly trailed in after her.

* * * * *

"So sorry – may I come in?" A female with a parrot beak was waiting politely at the door with a basket of laundry in her arms.

"Hmmmph?" Ariana paused as she was wringing the water out of her shirt. After she'd soaked as long as she possibly could, Ariana had gotten out of the communal tub, dried, and changed into the clothes that she had worn to Midori's party. O-tama's herbs had left her clothes clean and much more sweet-smelling that she'd thought possible. "Oh, sorry. I was just finishing," Ariana said, bowing as she collected her things. She stared at her wet clothes for moment until the other female pointed to the drying racks in a clearing not far from the bath house. 

"You can take your washing out there," the other female said. "I'll be taking my things out there shortly."

Ariana thanked her and took all her things outside with her. A good breeze was blowing through the small clearing, scattering late blossoms from the trees. She hung her black shirt, khaki cargo shorts and undergarments on the rack and found a comfortable seat on a low branch of a late-flowering fruit tree. Releasing her hair from the bathing sheet, she took a wide comb from her hair kit and began to methodically comb it in sections, tossing it over her head to hide her face. 

"One of these days," she grumbled, "I'll cut it all off, I swear!"

"Oh! Don't do that!"

Ariana turned her head to one side and peeped out. The three younger Tengu were standing there and she was impressed that they'd gotten so close without her hearing them.

"Well, well," she said through the curtain of her hair. "If it isn't Tic, Tac, and Toe --- hello, boys."

"Why do you call us that that?" The tall one asked. He was wearing a tight black head scarf and several strands of prayer beads that gave a bit of style to his somber grey tunic.

Ariana pointed at him, "Tic," and then the long-nosed one, "Tac," and finally the short one, "Toe. Three in a row – it's a kid's game. I had to call you something."

The long-nosed one snorted. "Well, you got me right at least. I'm Takakura – everyone calls me Tak for short."

"Right on the nose!" the tall one crowed and danced away from the punch that came his way. "I'm Tancho."

"M-mozu," the short one stammered shyly. "My name is Mozu." He blushed. "But you can call me Toe if you like."

"Yeah," Tak said, "call us Tic, Tak, and Toe. We don't mind." He rolled his eyes. "Everyone else calls us 'the Three.' At least you haven't relegated us to a number."

"I dunno," Ariana said, flipping her hair to the other side and continuing to comb, "my father and his rookery brothers used to be called the Trio for years." She gave a little laugh. "So, guys – tell me about yourselves."

Tak ran a hand through his dark hair, making the loose locks that framed his face feather back attractively and gave her a practiced smile. "As you might have guessed by my name, I'm Takamatsu's son. I'll be leader of the Tengu one day." 

"Really?" Ariana said politely. "My father's the second-in-command for the Manhattan clan. I expect you must be getting lots of extra training then."

"When he's not sloughing off, he is!!" Tic said brashly. "Don't get me wrong, Ariana-_san_, Tak's not totally lazy but sometimes the elders forget what it's like to be young – duty this and duty that."

"I know the feeling," Ariana replied, liking Tic's casual attitude far more than Tac's pretentious airs, "and my friends call me Ari-_chan_. What do you do for fun around here?"

Tic stood still for a moment like the long-legged bird he was named for. "Swimming, fishing, and playing pranks on any campers that get too close to the village," he answered, ticking them off on his fingers. "Master Kirin has a place up the coast from Kobe that we go to sometimes. It's a cave halfway up a cliff." He grinned, making his eyes crinkle into happy crescents. "He likes to go spearfishing but I like it for the clay deposits."

"Clay?"

"Yeah, I'm an apprentice potter." Tic reached into his wraparound tunic and pulled out a string of ceramic beads. He held it out for her to see and Ariana marveled at the lustrous sheen and the iridescent swirls of the glazes. "Goro has me making pots and stuff mostly but I do these for fun."

"You could get a lot of money for these!" Ariana exclaimed. "I know Midori sells prayer beads like these at the temple. They sell a lot of the clan's crafts there."

"Sell?" This change of subject shook Tak out of his pose of sullen indifference. "Gargoyles sell things to humans?"

"They do in Ishimura," Ariana said with a shrug. "In London, the clan there has kept a shop for generations. They sell books, jewelry, art, and herbal remedies."

"O-tama could do that," Toe spoke up suddenly. He had been literally standing in Tic's shadow and now that he was standing in the moonlight, Ariana could tell that he was not a sooty black as she first thought but actually a dark brown with lighter colored feathers on his face and chest. "She knows more about herbals than anyone."

Ariana gave her hair a few last strokes with the wide comb. "And how do you know that?"

Startled to be spoken to, Toe retreated partially behind Tic again, who rolled his eyes expressively but stood still. He seemed used to his shy sibling's quirks and answered for him. "Mozu's got a healer's touch," Tic said good-humoredly. "He's been under O-tama's wing for years. He'll make a fine healer when he's ready."

"Yeah, once he stops hiding in your shadow," Tak snorted.

Tic narrowed his eyes at Tak. "Leave off Mozu," he retorted, "or I'll hammer your nose into a tree."

"I like to see you try!"

Ariana rolled her eyes. "Boys," she muttered under her breath. Tossing her hair back and shaking her head to settle it in place, she parted it with her fingers and switched to a finer rat-tailed comb to do the narrow braids that she liked to hang in front of her ears. She paused when the fighting stopped and she looked up to see Tic, Tak, and Toe openly ogling her. "What?" She looked down; it was the lounge outfit which she had worn to Midori's party – hip-hugging black silk pants with a red dragon pattern and a red midriff-baring spaghetti-strap top that blended into her own skin color so well that Graeme jokingly called it her naked shirt. "Oh, c'mon guys!" she snorted. "Back home, this is considered street wear."

Toe blushed and looked away. Tic and Tak exchanged an intrigued look. "So," Tak said thoughtfully, "there are other girls like you in Ishimura?" He gave her an appraising glance. "Wearing things like this?"

"Yes," Ariana answered as she tossed her hair to the other side to do the matching braid. "You should see my friend Midori and her rookery sisters. We threw the boys out and had an all-girl party after I got to Ishimura." She grinned and pointed her comb at them. "There's going to be a festival called the Grand Miai at the full moon."

"A _miai_?" Toe squeaked. "Like in matchmaking?"

"A modern version, yeah." Satisfied with her hair, Ariana put her comb away. "All the clans are sending their young adults to meet at Ishimura. The first time that the council tried arranged matings, it didn't work very well so they're hoping that letting everyone get acquainted will help spread the DNA around." Looking at the blank expressions on their faces, Ariana rolled her eyes. "Boy meets girl, girl meets boy, eyes flash, tails twine… you know." She winked and the pale skin all around Toe's nostrils turned bright red.

"Perhaps sensei should go," Tic commented. "He's never taken a mate."

Ariana snorted. "Given his considerable personality flaws, I should think not!"

"He's lonely," Toe commented unexpectedly. "We all are."

"_Baka_!" Tak swatted him with his tail. "You shouldn't tell her that! It's none of her business!"

"Why shouldn't he?" Tic protested. "It's true!"

"Besides," Tak commented with a sly look at Ariana, "whenever sensei gets too lonely, the females take turns in comforting him." His rookery brothers snickered. "Master Kirin is cheerful for days afterwards."

"Really?" Ariana said archly. "Somehow I have a hard time imagining that. Kirin seems as sour as a dried permission." She took out a small bottle of scented oil and began to rub it on her wings, starting at her hand-like wing talons and working her way down. 

Toe came closer in spite of his inherent shyness and sniffed. "What are you doing?" he asked wonderingly. "It smells good, but what's it for?"

He was practically in her lap but Ariana could tell insatiable curiosity when she saw it. Graeme was much the same way. "It's just rose-scented oil," she answered. "After being tossed in that glop, I feel the need to be as girly as possible."

"'Girly?'"

"Feminine."

Tic took a sniff and sneezed. He rubbed his nose and asked, "You like smelling like that?"

"Yes," Ariana said, turning to look at him. "Don't the girls here do that?" She started on her other wing.

"The youngest female here is Mozu's birth mother," Tak snorted. "There were no girls in our rookery." He was still leering at her and it was beginning to get on her nerves.

"It was just me and my brother in mine," Ariana said lightly. "That's one of the reasons that we travel as much as we do – Mother wanted us to meet other gargoyles our age. My brother has a girlfriend in the London clan. She's a white lion – they all look like heraldic animals there."

"Weird," Tic commented. He took what looked like a lump of clay out of his belt pouch and began modeling it. "So there's lots of other clans? Have you been to them all?"

"No, not all of them but quite a few of them are coming to Ishimura. When I left, the Chinese clan had only just arrived but we're expecting to have several others show. The only ones that I know aren't coming are the Caledonian clan and the Guatemalan clan because their rookeries are too young." She started ticking them off on her fingers. "So far, Ishimura, Manhattan, China and London are participating. Korea and Antarctica may show but no one knows about Avalon or New Olympus because they're so isolated."

"Just like us then." Tak scowled at her as she began to put her things away. "If all this was going on, why did you come here? To tempt us to leave the Tengu?"

"No, I came here on my own," Ariana answered. "I've always liked to travel. Dad says I was born with itchy wings."

Casually, Tak reached up and snatched her bra off the rack where it had been hanging out of sight behind her shirt. "What's this?" he called out mockingly. 

Ariana grabbed her underwear before he could get to that as well. "It's mine," she said, glaring at him. "Give it here!"

"I don't know," Tak drawled. "Where's it go? Maybe you should go and model it for us, hmm?" He held it up in two fingers and began taunting her with it. A large green fist shot out and engulfed his wrist.

"It's an undergarment," said Kirin sardonically as he took the flimsy bit of lace out of Tak's hand, "worn by females for the purpose of enhancing what little bosom that they have." He handed it back to Ariana in a wad. "As you can see, it's an item she has very little use for."

Ariana refused to rise to his bait. "And yet somehow," she said coyly as she subtly shifted her stance with one hand back on her hip and her chest thrust out, "you found them worth noticing." A little smirk at the corners of her mouth completed her defiant gesture. It was a look that established that she could play the double entendre game and trump him too.

It was to her great satisfaction that the tall horned gargoyle did nothing but stare at her with smoldering eyes while the corners of his barbeled lip twitched. When he finally spoke, his voice was glacial. "Boys," he growled softly, "attend to your duties."

Tic, Tak, and Toe gave her one last appraising glance and headed off in three different directions – but not so far or so fast that they would have to miss out on anything.

Kirin leaned down to go nose to beak with her. "You will go put on suitable clothing immediately," he ground out between his teeth. "You're the first female my students have seen that's even remotely close to their age and I will not have you teasing them for your own amusement."

"Who says I'm teasing them?"

His eyes widened, glowing slightly.

Ariana blew him an impertinent kiss, ruffling the curls of his goatee with her breath. Allowing herself a brief smirk as she turned away, she caped her wings idly around her shoulders as if she didn't care and sauntered back to O-tama's hut, swishing her tail and strutting her stuff. She was pleased to hear him growling and stomping away in a huff behind her.

O-tama looked up as she came in. "Ah, Ari-_chan_! There you are!" She had been grinding grey-green leaves with a stone mortar-and-pestle. 

Ariana sniffed delicately. "_Cha_? You grow tea here?"

"Ah, you recognize it!" O-tama seemed pleased. "Do you know the ways of _chaji_?"

"Oh, yes." Ariana kneeled on a nearby pillow and set her backpack to one side. "Mother has taught me ever since I could boil water. She says a samurai must be the master of many disciplines. My friend Midori and I are going to be tea hostesses at the Grand Miai."

"It is good to have balance in one's life. Do you have other skills?"

She ticked them off on her fingers. "I can cook, but not as good as my uncle Broadway. I like to do theater, play sports, dance, and study martial arts." She laughed. "And I babble way too much when I'm nervous. Could you tell?" 

O-tama merely laughed back. "I hardly noticed, young one. Miza just brought me my evening meal. Will you join me?" The older gargoyle set a tray between them containing bowls of rice, pickled vegetables, miso soup, and grilled fish.

"_Itadakimasu_," Ariana gave the customary response with a polite bow. "I was getting hungry after that fight, thank you."

"I thought as much, young one," O-tama chuckled. "You fought well, in spite of the devious way Kirin chose to win." She cocked her head to one side. "Takamatsu was impressed. Now," she tapped Ariana's bowl with a pair of chopsticks, "eat up! You're too thin!!"

While Ariana shared O-tama's simple meal, life in the Tengu village went on. Through the open door, she watched a parade of the most eclectic mix of gargoyles go by. The bird-like _karasu_ types like Takamatsu predominated with their prominent beaks and feathered wings. There were a few of the _yamabushi_types like O-tama and Tancho with skewed and distorted humanoid features. The rest were like Goro with huge curling tusks or bizarre horns that looked more like creatures out of Japanese mythology. Ariana had gotten so used to the smooth humanoid faces of the other clans that she had visited that the Tengu seemed new and unusual. One thing bothered her though; there were no hatchlings underfoot. The gargoyle children at Ishimura were always around. Ariana frowned thoughtfully around a mouthful of rice.

Four shadows passed by on the rice paper wall behind them. "She smells really good," Toe was saying earnestly. "Do all females smell nice like that, sensei?" 

Kirin huffed before answering. "Sometimes," he admitted reluctantly. "All females like to preen and make themselves attractive. O-tama and Miza have always taken great care with their appearance. Why have you not complimented them?"

"They're different," Tic answered. "Don't you have anything nice to say about Ari-_chan_?"

"That's right," Tak said slyly. "You're always telling me that I need to improve my social skills, sensei. You've been frowning so much that Ari-_chan_ thinks you're a sour persimmon."

There was an audible sigh while Ariana and O-tama waited breathlessly to hear what Kirin might say. He huffed irritably. "Fine-- her hands are surprisingly soft. How she manages to hit so hard with them, I do not know." He gave a snorting laugh. "Her knuckles leave dents."

The laughter of the three younger males neatly covered Ariana's stifled giggles. O-tama's hands were folded over her mouth but her eyes twinkled merrily. "I suggest you take that as a compliment, young one," she said as soon as Kirin and the Three walked away. "I doubt he'll ever say anything else so nice to your face."

"_Obaasan_," Ariana asked thoughtfully, "is he always so grumpy? Whenever I'm around, he just scowls and growls. It's like I put him in a bad mood."

"Kirin is cautious," O-tama answered as she resumed crushing herbs in a stone bowl. "There is great sadness in his past. It makes him not want to trust people when he first meets them." She paused to test her mixture by rubbing it with her fingers. "Do not let his manner trouble you, Ari-_chan_. Kirin has a great heart and he cares about many things. It's what makes him a good teacher. He simply does not allow his feelings to show."

"Well, I suppose that does make sense," Ariana mused. "Still, I wish he'd lighten up."

"He can be quite charming," O-tama said lightly, "when he makes the effort." She watched Ariana frowning at her clothes. "Did you not get them clean enough?"

"They aren't dry yet." She made a face. "The boys were being boys and Kirin had to rescue my underwear. I thought it would be better to bring my things back in with me."

O-tama raised both brow ridges, which made her look like a venerable owl. "Ah," she commented. "I hope the curiosity of the Three does not trouble you, Ari-chan. As you might have observed, we do not have many young ones here." 

"Kirin said the same thing. I was telling the boys about the Grand Miai and about my friend Midori and her sisters." She winced a little. "I hope that wasn't out of line."

"No, I have been telling Takamatsu and the elders for the last few years that we should renew ties with Ishimura, for the sake of the Three, if nothing else." O-tama poured her crushed leaves into a wooden bowl and carefully wiped out the stone mortar with a clean cloth. "As healer, I know that there is a time to hold fast to tradition and a time when one must look to a clan's future. Some of the other elders might not like to hear you speak openly of such things but I have no objections."

Ariana nodded. "I will be very careful then, _obaasan_."

"Were the Three interested in what you had to say?"

"They certainly liked hearing about other girls!" 

O-tama chuckled warmly. "I daresay they would!" She motioned to a set of bamboo racks folded up behind a wide chest. "I use those racks for drying herbs but I don't see why you couldn't dry clothes on them as well. Why not put your things there? The Three know better than to tamper with things in my hut."

"Thank you, _obaasan_!" Ariana quickly assembled the bamboo racks and laid her clothes on them. As she started to lay her shorts down, she noticed a strip of orange peeking from her pocket. "Oh, I'd forgotten about that," she murmured as she took the nylon ribbon out.

"What is it, young one?"

Ariana showed it to her. "I found a bunch of these on my way here. I wondered what the writing said. Can you read it?"

O-tama shook her head. "No, but Kirin could."

"Somehow after this evening's mud bath, I don't think he's likely to help me."

"Then perhaps you could look up the words yourself," O-tama suggested. "I believe Kirin keeps several dictionaries in the schoolroom. It's up the trail past the treeline."

"Do you think he'll mind?"

"I doubt it," O-tama replied. "The males gather to eat and discuss clan business at this time of night. I saw Miza carrying in the food just before you came in. You should have the schoolroom all to yourself."

"That's great – thanks!" Ariana neatly stacked her dishes back on the tray and headed out the door.

* * * * *

Humming to herself, O-tama busied herself with tidying the hut and collecting the remnants of the meal on the tray. She slid the tray to the door and stood up in slow, easy stages before carrying her tray towards the main meeting room. Miza intercepted her and took the tray from her. 

"Well?" Miza asked. "How did it go?"

"Ari-_chan_ is different," O-tama said slowly, "but I like her. She is bold but she knows when to be biddable. Her manners are exquisite but she speaks her mind."

Miza giggled with a hand on the tip of her beak. "No wonder Kirin-_san_ is still fuming!" she tittered. "He's not used to a female that talks back to him!"

"And the Three?"

"Oh, they were whispering so much that Takamatsu-_sama_ sent Tancho and Takakura out on patrol. Mozu is here helping me while he waits to go harvesting with you. Are you ready?"

"Soon," O-tama answered. "I want to talk to Takamatsu for a moment."

She entered the main room quietly. The males of the Tengu clan were all gathered around in a circle, sitting on cushions and eating off lacquered trays. It was the custom for the females to eat separately except for private meals with their mates. As clan healer and leader's mate, O-tama had no qualms about joining the males. 

Takamatsu smiled pleasantly at her and made room for her at his side. "Is our guest well, _aisai_?"

"Oh, yes," O-tama answered as she settled in. "Ari-_chan_ was in fine spirits. It is good to have a young female among us again."

"She was not injured?"

"Nothing beyond a few bumps and scrapes." O-tama caught Kirin's intent look as she said this and pretended that she did not notice. "She is young and recovers quickly."

"That is very good," Takamatsu commented. "I would not like it if Lady Ariana came to harm under our care." He glanced briefly at Kirin who was sipping sake from a shallow dish. "Her safety is our utmost priority."

"Kirin-_san_," O-tama said sweetly, "while Ari-_chan_ is with us, perhaps you should act as her chaperone."

"Me?" Kirin asked indignantly. "She can take care of herself. Why should I be saddled with her?" He jabbed at his food with his chopsticks as he continued to eat.

"As much as I hate to admit it, the Three are getting certain urges about our visitor. You had better make sure nothing happens to her." The older female pursed her lips and raised her brows sternly. "I caught Takakura lurking outside the bath house while she was in there. It's only a matter of time before the other two try something. Miza and I can watch over her in the village but Ariana will need someone active to keep up with her."

Sighing, Kirin set down his rice bowl. "Very well," he said resignedly, "I can see I'm on the losing side of this argument. Where is the bothersome wench?"

"She went up to the schoolroom," O-tama said mildly as she collected Takamatsu's dishes. 

"My schoolroom?" There was an abrupt thump as Kirin got to his feet. "You let her go there?"

"She wanted a dictionary. I told her she could find one there. Is that a problem?" She smiled to herself as Kirin muttered something about his books and bolted from the room, the wooden floor vibrating with his footsteps. 

Tagamatsu eyed his mate in amusement. "Are you sure about throwing those two together?" he asked mildly. "They might kill each other."

"When a hatchling is afraid to fly, sometimes one must give it a push." O-tama gazed out the wide windows at Kirin's broad back going up the trail. "He is not the same crippled creature he was when he came to us. It's time for him to start living again."

* * * * *

Wide sweeping red cedars neatly hid the secluded wooden hut from view. Ariana would have missed it herself if she hadn't had a gargoyle's sense of smell to rely on. Kirin had passed this way recently and after their earlier fight, there was no mistaking his musky masculine scent. The schoolroom was a small, one-roomed building with smooth floors laid with tatami mats and wide, sliding doors and windows to let the air circulate through it. A slate chalkboard in a wooden rack was in a corner, covered in neat, meticulous kanji. Heaps of cushions were piled next to a low bookcase. She gave the books a cursorily glance but there were too many other things to see.

Her nose told her that this was where Kirin spent most of his time. In spite of his animosity towards her, Ariana was curious about the Ishimuran teacher that served the Tengu. Part of the room was partitioned off with a bamboo screen and she poked her head around it. There was a neatly folded futon on top of a chest and a standing wardrobe with the door ajar. She opened it and found clothes on hangers -- grey Tengu tunics as well as diamond-patterned male kimonos and yukatas. In the bottom of the wardrobe, there was an open box of photos. Ariana took them to one of the windows to have a better look.

"Well, well," she commented to herself, "so Kirin does know how to smile." The photos were quite old, from his rookery days from the look of it. Ariana recognized a young Kai standing next to Kirin in the back row of a group shot that included the younger versions of Kai's mate, Sakaki, Sora, Yanagi, and Yama who she'd met in New York years before. There was a goofy picture of Kai and Kirin clowning around on a beach with Sakaki and a chocolate brown female with a broad, flat face with double-pronged horns and her hair bound up in a samurai knot. Kirin was looking at her with such rapt infatuation that Ariana felt a mild twinge of jealousy; she'd give anything to have a male look at her with such devotion. She put the photos back in the box and returned them to the wardrobe.

"I wonder what happened to her," Ariana murmured. "Tak said that Kirin has no mate. Huh." She shook her head. "Enough snooping! Where's that dictionary?"

Plopping down on the cushions in front of the bookcase, Ariana began to go through the schoolroom library book by book. Quite a lot of them were textbooks written in Japanese but she was able to guess at their topics by the illustrations. The second shelf contained books printed in English and other languages and the bottom shelf had mostly literature. She became engrossed in a battered paperback copy of **_Jane Eyre_** and lost track of time.

"What are you doing in here?" Ariana glanced up to see Kirin staring at her in horror as she sat in front of his empty bookcase. The books themselves were sitting in piles on the floor all around her. "I had those organized!" His lip twitched.

"O-tama said you had a Japanese/English dictionary," Ariana said absently, her chin resting on her hand. "I'm trying to figure out what this says." She held up a strip of nylon ribbon.

"What is it?" Kirin took it from her irritably, and studied it for a moment. "Ah, it's a survey tag. We find them sometimes. Where'd you get it?" He sank down on the floor besides her.

"On the Tengumichi Trail, near where the old temple used to be. There were a lot of them tied to the bushes." Ariana sat up a little straighter. "Why would anyone be surveying a temple site?"

"The first character is blurred but the next two say 'Mining Limited.'"

"It must have gotten smeared while I was washing my clothes. It was in my pocket." Ariana frowned. "What would a mining company want around here?"

"Silver," Kirin answered absently. "There used to be a lot of silver mining here during the Meji era. Most of them petered out by the mid-twentieth century but earthquakes sometimes turn up a hidden vein." He twitched his lip, making his barbels swing slightly. "The rookery was a silver mine at one point. We find the odd piece occasionally."

"I passed a work crew and several campsites on the way in from Osaka," Ariana mused, thinking out loud. "I wonder if they have anything to do with this?"

"We checked the work crew out a few nights ago – standard highway repairs." Kirin turned the ribbon over in his fingers. "You say that there were more of these things?"

"Yes, lots."

Kirin twitched his lip a few more times and scowled into space. "There's nothing else for it," he finally said. "You'll have to show me."

"Dude, I have no idea where I am," Ariana said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Somebody knocked me out and brought me here unconscious, remember?"

Glancing around at his scattered books and then glaring back at her, he growled, "Don't tempt me."

Ariana sighed. "You're a worse neatnik than my brother. Just a min." Without really looking at them, she began to reshelve his books like she was shuffling cards.

"Wait!" Kirin called in a panic. "You don't know where--!"

"Relax, I do this all the time." She laughed. "The trick is to know what order you take them off the shelf and then just reverse it." Tucking the last one in place, she gestured at the shelves with a flourish and grinned. "See?"

Kirin whined under his breath as he looked at his books with a pained expression. He blinked and leaned in. "They're… in the correct order." He reached out, took one out, reversed it and put it back in. "Upside-down but in the right spot." He raised an eyebrow at her. "How did you do that?"

Tilting her head, Ariana smiled winsomely. "Just a little something I picked up watching three-card monty dealers in Times Square." She bounced to her feet. "So, are we going or what?"

"You're going to wade through brambles in that?" he asked pointing at her midriff top and lounge pants.

"No, you're going to wade through brambles," she countered. "I'm going to lurk in the trees this time."

Narrowing his eyes, Kirin puffed his upper lip out at her.

"Why do you do that?" Ariana asked. "That is so weird. You look like the Lenten special at Pastorini's Deli."

"And you dress like an _otaku_ schoolgirl at a pajama party," he retorted. "We are not going to get anywhere if we keep sniping at each other."

"Well, somebody threw me in sewage and my other clothes are still wet. I'm not wearing my good yukata to skulk in the woods so I'm stuck wearing this, okay?" She put her hands on her hips and stuck her chin out at him.

Instead of snapping back at her, Kirin sat perfectly still and examined her carefully from head to toe, moving only his eyes. It was a look so clinical and disinterested that Ariana almost would have preferred one of Tak's leers. He sucked in one of his barbels and chewed on it thoughtfully for a moment. Rising to his feet, he padded around the partition and returned with a short ash-grey kimono. "Here – this is one of Mozu's. I don't know if it'll fit but it's clean and he's closest to your size." With that, he handed it to her and left the schoolroom. "Hurry up and change. I don't have all night."

"Oh-kay…." Ariana blinked and shook her head. "I didn't see THAT coming." She held out the grey kimono and pursed her lips thoughtfully. "So what can I do with this?"

"Where is she?" Kirin grumbled under his breath. He glanced discreetly over his shoulder towards the schoolroom. "How long could it possibly take to change clothes?"

O-tama came out of the woods with Mozu by her side, the younger gargoyle carrying a flat-bottomed basket full of wild herbs and vegetables. She gave the Ishimuran teacher a curious glance and paused for a moment to look around. "Where is our guest, Kirin-_san_?" she asked mildly. "You were to watch over her."

Raising his feathered crest, Mozu said nothing but became instantly attentive.

Kirin shrugged. "She's going to take me to where she found that ribbon. I gave her one of the boys' tunics to wear. Those ridiculous pants of hers will get shredded in the brambles."

Mozu suddenly dropped the basket. His beak hung open as he stared past them.

Waving a hand in front of her apprentice's slack face, O-tama said anxiously, "Buddha preserve us! What's the matter, Mozu?"

"So, are you coming or what?" Ariana asked cheerfully. She waited just long enough for her audience to take it all in – she'd modified the drab grey uniform by rolling up the sleeves to the shoulders, turning her dragon print pants into a makeshift obi, and binding up her hair with the drawstring from said pants. The kimono itself was tucked up so it reached mid-thigh. She smiled sweetly and pivoted to go back up the trail, flashing a nice length of leg. "You launch off that bluff I saw out the back window, right?" 

Kirin's indignant bellow was right on cue. "**_WHAT_** are you wearing?" 

Cocking her head, O-tama commented, "She would appear to be wearing Mozu's tunic." Her eyes danced. "And quite stylishly, I might add."

"Hey, when you've got a beak like mine," Ariana said with a lofty tilt of her head, "style is everything." 

Kirin made a whining growl under his breath and bared his teeth. He gave O-tama a dirty look as he hurried past them on his way up the trail.

"Play nice, children!" O-tama called after him.

While her escort hiked up the path, Ariana paused to take in the amazing view beneath her. The Tengu village ended at a sheer granite drop over two hundred feet straight down to the twisting river that meandered through the mountain range. 

"Wait." Kirin took a length of cloth out of his tunic and covered her eyes with it. "The elders insisted that you not know our precise location."

"A blindfold? On a first date?" Ariana grinned impishly and turned her head towards him. "How kinky." She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from giggling when he huffed twice for that comment.

"Here," he said gruffly and took her hand. "Hold on and I'll guide you while we glide." 

Ariana felt the edge of the granite bluff with her toes and the strong updraft of air rushing up it. She unfurled her wings and felt them brush lightly against his. "Ready when you are."

"Very well." His fingers tightened just before they jumped and he kept a tight grip on her hand as the updraft sent them soaring up into the cooler upper air. Ariana felt like a hatchling out on her first flying lesson; his hand was so much larger than hers

"When can I take this off?" she asked after several minutes. "I keep thinking that you'll fly me into a tree or something."

"Don't be stupid. O-tama would skin me." He canted them to the left and she could hear the rush of water below. "All right, we're far enough away. You can get rid of it now." He released her hand.

Loosening the blindfold, Ariana removed it and looped the fabric around her left wrist. They were over the river that wound through the Rokko mountains like a sinuous snake. Tributaries branched off of it to meander through the foothills. "Do you know where we are?" she shouted up at Kirin, who had soared higher.

"We're nearing the back side of Mt. Maya," he called back. "There's a good thermal coming off the west face. It's an easy glide from here to the temple site."

Ariana felt the warmer air currents filling her wings and she let it lift her up and over Kirin in an acrobatic barrel roll. Kirin gave a curious jerk in mid-air as she passed and had to over-compensate to keep level. He gave her a hard glare and Ariana bit the inside of her lip. She'd caught him looking her over again so she'd flipped her tail at him. It was a subtle bit of teasing that she'd picked up from Midori and it drove the Ishimuran males crazy for some reason. 

By the way Kirin was scowling, Ariana decided that she'd had enough fun at his expense and that possibly some diplomacy was in order. "Are we going to the summit or to that Zen garden thing with all the boulders?" 

He snorted rudely. "Those aren't boulders. Even the smallest Tengu hatchling could tell you that."

"You know," Ariana said thoughtfully, "that was bothering me earlier." She glided over a little closer, hovering just over Kirin's left shoulder. "Shouldn't they have hatchlings? I mean, Ishimura had a rookery hatch in 'ninety-eight."

"You didn't ask this of O-tama, did you?" His voice was intense but not as harsh as it had been.

"No," she said slowly. "I wasn't sure it would be polite. What happened?"

"The rookery survived the earthquake of 'ninety-five but the eggs were damaged." Kirin sighed, puffing out his fish-whiskered lip. "The hatchlings were sickly from the start. O-tama tried everything but one by one, they all died." He paused. "I was allowed to contact Ishimura and consult with the healers there. Master Kado thought that the earthquake might have caused irreparable internal damage."

"Oh, no!" Ariana bit her lip. "How terrible!"

"O-tama still mourns their loss, as both a healer and a mother." They crested over the mountain and began to descend. "You will only sadden her if you ask of it."

"I understand," she agreed meekly. Ariana remembered her parents telling her and Graeme about their own hatching and the crushing despair that Sata and Brooklyn had faced that night. She could imagine all too clearly what it must have been like for the Tengu to lose an entire rookery.

Spiraling in, they landed on the rim of the gravel-strewn clearing. She started to step forward but Kirin blocked her with his arm. "Look carefully at the shapes within the rocks," he said solemnly. "This place is sacred to the Tengu. Can you tell me why?"

Frowning at him, Ariana bit back the first sarcastic remark that came to mind and concentrated on the scene before her. There were nine large boulders, roughly polished by the wind. Their surface was pitted and scarred from years of erosion but there was a curious inner texture – she leaned in, staring at it intently for a moment before recoiling back against Kirin's broad chest. There was the barest outline of a face beneath the surface of the stone.

"It's – it's a gargoyle frozen in stone!" she stammered excitedly. "Are they all --?"

"Yes," Kirin said, taking her by the arm and guiding her around the edge of the clearing. "When a Tengu leader feels the four winds calling to him at the end of his life, he is brought here to take his place within the _Sojobo_ circle."

"'_Sojobo_?'" 

"It's the hereditary title of the Tengu leader." He pointed to the massive granite rock that towered over them. "It is said that Takakage himself faced the winds on Tengu Rock and his body became part of it."

Ariana raised a brow ridge. "Really?" 

Kirin returned the look. "Well, that's what Takamatsu-_sama_ told the Three when they came here the first time. It's part of their clan lore." He made a face. "I was informed that I was to explain why we were so hostile when we found you here. This is sacred ground – the Tengu take trespassing very seriously." 

"Apology accepted."

He bristled instantly. "I didn't –"

Ariana sprang up the side of a tall oak tree to avoid the tangled brambles. "Coming?" She gave him an over-the-shoulder glance just before she started to travel through the treetops. He was scowling but it wasn't an angry look, just perturbed. She was beginning to think that disgruntled was a normal state of being for Kirin. Her passage through the forest was effortless and light thanks to years of training on Fox's gymnastics equipment. Halfway to the main path, however, a new cluster of safety orange markers caught her eye.

A hollow thump and a shower of leaves announced Kirin's arrival on a neighboring tree. "What is it?"

"These markers," Ariana said, pointing down into the underbrush. "They weren't this far in before. I only found them along the path last night."

"Strange." Kirin jumped down and examined the markers for himself. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, look – there's some of my hair on that bush next to your shoulder. I can see it moving in the breeze."

Plucking the long silken strands delicately from the thorny branch with his talons, Kirin held it to his nose and sniffed. "Yes," he said slowly, "it carries your scent." He frowned as he examined the trail of markers. "Go higher, Ari-_chan_, be eyes for me. Someone is taking great interest in something here. We should find out why."

Ariana raised her brow ridges. "My," she said coyly, "we're so informal all of a sudden."

"I feel I'm entitled," Kirin shot back, "considering how much of you I can see from down here."

"**_Kusojiji_**! You dirty old man!" Cheeks burning, Ariana swung around to put the tree trunk between them. 

He shrugged but a knowing smirk was in his voice. "Say what you like but I'm not the one wearing a short kimono."

"Lecherous old goat!" she grumbled as she climbed up into the canopy of the subtropical forest. Peeking around the trunk, she watched for a moment as Kirin methodically searched the ground. A sudden smile came to her face. "Well," she said, "at least he looked. The guys in Ishimura never did."

"Look what we have here, Tancho," Tak drawled out indolently as he settled on a neighboring branch. "A pretty little bird sitting in a tree." He rolled his eyes up and down her body. "Nice outfit – you look like a real Tengu girl."

"Tak," Ariana said simply, nodding her head to him, "and Tic. Where've you guys been?"

"We had patrol duty," Tic answered. "Mozu's off with O-tama." He took a spot on the other side of her so the two young warriors had her trapped between them.

Ariana pretended not to notice but shifted her wings as if she were merely stretching. "Oh, I know," she said guilelessly. "I saw them just before we left."

"We?" Tak asked as he sidled closer. "It looks to me that our little bird is all alone, doesn't it, brother? Perhaps we should keep her company."

"Takakura!" Kirin bellowed from the ground. "Tancho! Get down here!"

"Busted," Ariana chanted in a soft sing-song voice.

Tic grimaced and was off his branch in a flash but Tak merely narrowed his eyes at their teacher. "I see you were assigned a keeper," he commented. "Pity – we could have had some fun."

"I'm sure that might have been possible if you had gone about it the right way," she replied tartly, but scarlet light was flickering dangerously in her eyes. "You haven't been around many girls, Tak, so let me help you out here."

"Yes?" He leaned forward and smiled suggestively. 

"The female is the one that chooses and the male cannot force her choice." Her firm gaze became a stare as hard and cold as a New York winter. ""Try anything with me and Kirin will be the least of your worries."

"Tough talk from a soft female," he sneered softly.

"Friendly advice," she countered, "and you might want to keep it that way." Ariana smiled sweetly and pushed off to slowly glide down to the ground. 

Kirin started to scowl at her as Ariana approached then glanced past her into the trees. His expression changed subtly, becoming more wary, and he raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't see anything from up there?" he asked mildly. "It's just as well. There are several sets of tracks down here."

"Fresh?" Ariana dropped to her haunches and traced the waffle-print sole of a hiking boot. She took a pinch of dirt and sniffed it. "Motor oil."

Kneeling besides her, Kirin made a show of examining the track as well. "Is Tak bothering you?" he murmured softly. 

"Tak is a horndog," she whispered back. "I can handle it. Don't worry."

"Hmmph." Kirin stood back up. "Tak! Fly a low sweep over this area! There's been a survey crew through here today. Let's see what they're after."

"There's some people camped out in the foot hills near the guide station," Tic said as he traced another set of footprints a few yards away. "That's not that far away on foot."

"What's the policy on offroad vehicles up here?" Ariana asked thoughtfully. "Any restrictions?" 

Kirin raised both eyebrows. "I do not know," he admitted slowly. "As a rule, this area is foot travel only. There's only three main roads on Mt. Rokko and they are some distance from here. Why do you ask?"

"Because this motor oil smells very fresh," she said as she took a bigger pinch and rubbed it between her fingers, "and there was enough of it on this guy's shoes to leave traces of it in the dirt." She flicked the excess off and showed him her greasy fingers. "See?"

"Are you sure?" Kirin asked.

"Hey, I'm a city girl," Ariana replied. "I've been on enough crime scenes to tell the difference between old and fresh motor oil. This stuff hasn't had time to be absorbed into the ground; it's all on top. Whoever had this on their shoes didn't walk too far to get here."

A piercing whistle from the tree tops drew their attention. Tak was several yards away, hanging from a tall laurel tree by one hand and his feet braced against the trunk. He made several hand gestures that Ariana didn't recognize but Kirin and Tic did; they both became wary and ducked beneath the level of the spreading bushes around them. Tic scuttled to the nearest tree and climbed it like a monkey. 

Kirin pulled her closer and whispered in her ear, "Tak says there are humans in the next clearing. We will take a look while Tancho watches our back." 

"All right," Ariana whispered back, understanding the need for stealth. She held back and let Kirin lead the way through the thick underbrush. There was flash of red nylon through the leaves. They dropped to all fours and crept closer. The fur-tipped end of Kirin's tail twitched like a cat's as he gingerly parted some branches so they could look through. Ariana slipped in under his arm so she could see too. "Whoa."

"Sssh," Kirin hissed in her ear. They were looking at a motorcycle with a red nylon jacket draped over the seat, a large backpack, and several compact aluminum cases. One of them was open and they could see that it contained a silver cylinder cocooned in foam rubber. 

"What is that?" Before Kirin could stop her, Ariana slipped through the bushes and was examining the strange items.

"What are you doing?" Kirin growled beneath his breath. He was scanning the area urgently, lifting his snout to scent for intruders. "We can't be seen!"

"I'd give real money to have Graeme here right now," she commented. "This is some kind of sensor or probe." She flipped it over to show Kirin the spiked tip. "See? They drive it into the ground. There's probably some kind of microcomputer circuitry inside this housing."

Kirin frowned and shook his head. "You're only guessing."

"Yeah, but trust me – you do not grow up with my techno geek brother without picking up a few things." She dug into the backpack and came up with a stainless steel clipboard, the kind designed with built-in storage. "Here – you look at this," she said as she handed it up to him. 

"'Wariguri Mining Limited,'" Kirin mused, reading the title off the clipboard cover. He opened it and frowned. "There's too much paperwork – I'll have to take it back to the village and go over it there."

"Then take it and give the clipboard back," Ariana replied. "Chances are whoever brought this stuff out here won't check it until they get back to the office."

Raising an eyebrow, Kirin removed the papers and tucked them away inside his tunic. "You are a devious and underhanded wench," he said wryly. "O-tama is sadly mistaken about you."

Before Ariana could come up with a suitable retort, Tic and Tak dropped out of the trees besides them. "The human is planting those metal rods in the ground," Tak reported. "He's going up the slope away from Tengu Rock, but I don't like it. What is he doing? What does it mean?"

"We don't know," Kirin answered, "but I think we may have found some answers tonight. I just need the time to go through these documents thoroughly."

Tak shook his head. "He's got a full box of these things with him," he said, prodding the cylinder with his toe. "There's enough for him to go all the way up the ridge by morning. Do we really want him that close to our roosting places?"

"I say we take these things and drop them at the guide station," Tic said firmly as he picked up the aluminum cases. "Anyone who is out here at this hour is up to no good."

"Yes," Kirin agreed. "Let the human authorities deal with this puzzle as well."

Tak nodded. "But we'll need to get the others as well."

"I've got an idea," Ariana said, tapping her beak. She tossed aside the nylon jacket that had been covering the sleek-looking motorcycle. "This guy got up here on this bike, right? If we start it up and he hears it, he'll come running to try and save his ride. It's a long walk back to town without it."

"It's just a machine," Tic said reasonably. "Why would he want to do that?"

Ariana put her hand on the gas tank and caressed the smooth enameled metal. "Guys, trust me – this is the latest model in Kawasaki's ninja bike series. Anybody who would drive one of these babies wouldn't let it get stolen without a fight."

Tak made a rude noise. "So it's a fancy toy -- none of us knows how to operate this thing."

"Wanna bet?" Sticking her tongue in the corner of her mouth, Ariana knelt and fiddled with some wires until the motor purred to life. Flipping her wings around her tightly so that it looked like she was wearing skin-tight black leathers trimmed in red, she hopped on and balanced the bike between her legs. "You guys hide and when he's following me, grab his gear and go." 

Tic and Tak looked at each other, looked at her in mischievous glee, and then disappeared into the trees. Kirin curled his lip at her and grabbed her by the shoulder. "Don't," he warned her sternly, "do anything foolish!"

"I'll just run it down the road and ditch it somewhere – don't worry!" Ariana grinned and gunned the throttle, making the engine roar. She pivoted it around, spraying loose leaves in all directions as she headed for the road. Excited shouts echoed behind her and she paused just long enough at the edge of the woods to see a silhouetted figure top the hill. He waved his arms frantically as he ran towards her and fumbled for something in his jacket pocket.

"Yeah, yeah," Ariana said to herself, "see the crazy garg chick making off with your bike." She let him get a little closer before releasing the brake and leaving a one-eighty skidmark on the gravel of the Tengumichi Trail. Her hair streaming in the wind, Ariana laughed out loud as she rode the bike past Dairyuji Temple and onto the main road. It had been ages since she had been out riding motorcycles with Brooklyn; Sata disapproved of it but, more often than not, looked the other way when her wayward mate and equally wayward daughter hit the streets.

The asphalt road hugged the curves of the mountain like Ariana's favorite silk dress – fast on the straightaway and tight in the turns. She could see the lights of Kobe far below her to the west and briefly considered taking a joyride down there. "Heh, Kirin would have kittens," she chuckled. 

The thought of goading the Ishimuran teacher into a fit was so amusing that the lights in her rearview mirror were nearly upon her before Ariana realized it. It was another ninja series racing bike, and by the way the driver was hunched over the steering column, he was determined to catch up to her. She glanced up but there was no sign of her Tengu escort anywhere.

"Oh-kay," she commented, "Let's race." A smug smile not unlike her father's curled around her beak in anticipation. She pointed her beak into the wind and opened up the throttle, leaning the bike into the next turn at top speed. Her pursuer did the same, copying her move and matching velocities. To the side, she spied Tic riding the thermals up the steep embankment. He gave her a startled glance and veered off when he saw she had uninvited company, hopefully to go for reinforcements.

The other biker took advantage of her momentary distraction and swerved in towards her, forcing her to the edge of the road. Ariana uncoiled her tail from around her leg where she'd been keeping it out of the way and slashed it across his face like a whip. He lost control of his motorcycle for a moment but regained it almost immediately. It was just enough to let Ariana run the throttle full out and get a few lengths ahead of him. She squinted at the road in front of her. It was a dangerous game, traveling at such high speeds on roads with so many unexpected twists and turns.

Her toes brushed the pavement as she took the next turn and she winced at the damage to her pedicure. Trees obscured her view for a moment but then she was blinded by the headlights of an oncoming dairy truck. Ariana swerved and felt the hot fumes of the vehicle's engine exhaust pass by. She blinked furiously to clear her light-sensitive eyes only to see the bright orange reflectors on the guard rail and beyond them, a matching set on the far side of the hairpin turn coming up.

"I'll never make the turn!" she said out loud and instead of slowing down, she gunned the engine. Wheels spinning as she crashed through the guardrail, Ariana snapped out her wings and instantly regretted it as the extra weight pulled her down. Darkness rose up from beneath her as she rode the bike across the void. 

"Come on!" she groaned and flapped her wings futilely as she approached the other side. The back wheel of the motorcycle was dipping dangerously; if she didn't get it raised up in time, she wouldn't be able to land the jump. Her right wing was starting to burn with the strain. "C'mon, Ari!" she called out. "You can do this!"  

The guardrail loomed up. The front wheel barely touched it – and the tire skidded futilely against it with a sharp smell of burning rubber as it failed to clear the barrier. The motorcycle started to fall back – and Ariana was forcibly removed from the bike as Kirin swooped in and snatched her into his arms. 

Tumbling down the craggy mountainside, the motorcycle smashed into a boulder and erupted into a brilliant fireball. The force of the explosion tossed the two gargoyles into a grove of trees across the road where they crashed to the ground in an undignified heap. Too shaken to do anything else Ariana lay across Kirin's broad chest and listened to the other motorcycle pull up. The rider cursed furiously in a Japanese dialect that she didn't understand before heading back the way he came.

Ariana blew a strand of hair out of her face. "I could have landed the bike, you know," she said indignantly. "All I needed was a few more seconds."

 "I doubt that seriously," Kirin retorted as he levered himself up on his elbows. "That was a foolhardy thing to do. No sane gargoyle would have attempted it."

"I'll have you know that my father has been riding motorcycles for years," she shot back. "He's done that stunt dozens of times."

"That only proves my point that insanity is hereditary." He glared at her. "Now get off of me, ungrateful wench!" 

Planting a hand none too gently in the middle of his stomach, Ariana started to get up only to have a shooting pain race from her right wing strut and down her spine. "Ow!" She fell to her elbows and grimaced, her breath hissing through her teeth.

"What is it now?" he asked, concerned in spite of himself.

"Pulled a wing muscle – ooooh!" Ariana groaned. "Give me a minute – I need to stretch it." She managed to drag herself off to one side of Kirin and tried to flex her right wing. "Owie-owie-owie-owie…." 

"Here," Kirin said gruffly as he sat up and ran his hands deftly along her wing strut. "You've twisted your carpi radialis, you little idiot." His strong fingers dug into the corded muscles between her shoulder blade and her wing talons and readjusted it. "Your father may have the wing span to carry the weight of a motorcycle but a female of your size just doesn't have that kind of lift. I cannot imagine what you were thinking."

Despite his grumbling, Kirin's deft fingers loosened her knotted muscles and the intense shooting pain ceased. Ariana rested her head on Kirin's shoulder. "Oh! That's SO much better!" She sighed and closed her eyes.

There was the rough scrape of talons on asphalt and then a discreet throat-clearing. "So, sensei," Tak said with a distinctly naughty tone in his voice, "will you and Ari-_chan_ be much longer or should we go back to the village without you?"

Ariana and Kirin looked at each other and instantly realized what a compromising situation they were in – her draped over his lap and him with his arms around her. They both recoiled in horror and scrambled away from each other. Kirin curled his lip like he had a bad taste in his mouth. "No, we are quite finished here," he said haughtily. "Lady Ariana has done enough showing off for one evening."

"Showing off?" Ariana narrowed her eyes to slits and glared holes through him. "Getting chased by that guy was NOT my fault! And what did he say anyway? I couldn't understand a word of it."

"Funny, I heard him perfectly," Tak commented, still watching them from the road. "He cursed a bit and then he said something along the lines of 'at least there won't be anything left.'" He smirked. "I suppose you were too pre-occupied to hear him clearly, _neh_?"

"The man spoke with an Osaka dialect," Kirin said gruffly as he trudged up the hill. "It differs from the Japanese spoken in Tokyo, which is the kind commonly used in Ishimura." 

Ariana followed him up. "Really?" 

Tak laughed harshly. "That would explain why some of the elders were complaining that you didn't speak properly." He walked over to the guardrail and leaned over. "Tancho! What did you find?"

Ariana peered into the ravine between Tak and Kirin. Tic was halfway down the steep slope, loosening rocks to smother the burning motorcycle with dirt. He looked up at them. "There's nothing left," he reported. "We're lucky that it fell on bare earth – no chance for the fire to spread." He prodded some of the ashes with his talons. 

"Careful," Kirin admonished. "Don't burn yourself."

"Not to worry, sensei," Tic replied cheerfully. "I've handled hotter pots coming out of the kiln." He took off his head scarf, and Ariana realized that it wasn't just a fashion statement – Tancho was as bald as an egg. He gingerly picked several lumps from the ashes and put them in the scarf before pushing off from the ravine face and catching an updraft to glide up to join them. "These came from a storage space beneath the seat," he said, opening his scarf to show them some small grayish rocks. They were composites, Ariana discovered on closer inspection, containing bits of quartz, slate, and bright silvery blue veins. Some of the rocks had strange rivulets of metal puddled at their bases.

"What kind of rocks melt?" she asked, pointing at the melted bits. "That's really weird." She looked up to see Kirin frown. "What?"

He scowled at her. "It is none of your concern," he said with a dismissive gesture. "You have already done enough, thank you. We will return to the village now."

"You know something!" Ariana exclaimed accusingly. "We can't stop now! What about those guys? We need to find out what they're—"

Kirin's eyes flashed. "The only thing you are going to do," he snarled, "is exactly what I say, foolish hatchling."

"You know," Ariana said, poking her finger into his chest, "I'm getting fed up with your attitude problem, pal. There's something seriously wrong here and you know I'm right."

"You agree to abide by the rules of the Tengu," he shot back, "did you not? We do not concern ourselves with the human world and we do not attract their attention to us!"

"There are times to follow the rules and there are times to bend them." She pointed down at the smoldering motorcycle. "This is one of those times, Kirin! Stop hiding in the woods and act like a gargoyle!"

Eyes glowing dangerously, Kirin stared at her and cracked his knuckles one after the other. Both Tic and Tak chose to back up at this gesture, clearly moving out of the danger zone. Ariana refused to budge and stood her ground, lifting her chin defiantly. His cheek twitched as anger darkened his face. "Who," he said in a low growl, "do you think you are to lecture me?"

"Ignoring a problem," she snapped back, "never makes it go away." She narrowed her eyes to scarlet slits. "We have to confront these people now and find out what they're doing before it's too late!"

"That might be the way you do things where you are from," he retorted hotly, "but it is not the Tengu way. You forget yourself!" 

"And I think you've forgotten what being a gargoyle's all about!"  The minute the words left her lips, Ariana instantly knew it was a mistake. 

His nostrils flared and without warning, Kirin seized her roughly by the wrist and swept them both off the edge. Ariana tried to pull herself free only to be warned off with a menacing growl. She forced herself to relax to reduce the effects of his bruising grip. It was all she could do to keep up with him; he knew where all the updrafts were and where the wind currents were the fastest. They were spiraling down into the Tengu village before Ariana had a chance to memorize any landmarks.

O-tama was sitting with Miza and some of the other females. They were engaged in various domestic tasks from threshing rice to cleaning vegetables. The elderly healer gave them a curious look and put a bowl of half-shelled peas aside to come greet them.

"Here!" Kirin said forcefully as he shoved Ariana towards O-tama. "Take her! I wash my hands of her!!"

"Whatever is the matter?"

"Just keep her away from me!" He stomped away, grumbling to himself and clenching his fists. Tic and Tac arrived just as Kirin was disappearing into a grove of trees. Toe hurried over to them with a freshly drawn bucket of water and he listened intensively to them as they quickly filled him in on the evening's adventure in excited whispers.

O-tama eyed this activity suspiciously before turning to Ariana. "Interesting," she commented dryly. "Kirin seems to be agitated. Do you know why?"

"No idea," Ariana said guilelessly. "Sometimes my father and my brother get that way too." She shrugged. "It must be a guy thing."

Tak immediately choked on a dipperful of water. Tic was laughing too hard to help him so Toe had to pound on Tak's back. He shook his head at them while both of his rookery brothers tried futilely to stifle their laughter. Ariana sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes at them which only made them laugh harder.

"I see," O-tama drawled out. "I suspect it is fortunate that Takamatsu has asked if you would perform _chaji_for us tomorrow evening. You will need spend the rest of this night making your preparations, _neh_?"

It was a subtle scolding, Ariana knew, and she submitted to it willingly since it had been an eventful night and she did not want to offend her hosts. "Of course, O-tama," she said graciously, "I would be honored to do the tea ceremony for Takamatsu-_sama_. How many guests shall I prepare for?"

While she and O-tama haggled over the details of the tea ceremony, Ariana noticed as Kirin re-emerged from the grove of trees with several stoneware bottles. He was drinking from one as he wandered off in the general direction of the schoolroom. O-tama caught the puzzled expression on her face and glanced around. 

"It would seem," the older female said succinctly, "that Kirin intends to spend the rest of the evening in a sake cup."

Ariana winced. She hadn't meant to make Kirin that upset and glanced at O-tama guiltily only to see the Tengu healer begin to chuckle quietly.

"Do not worry, young one," O-tama said, taking her arm. "I do not know what you've been up to but Kirin has been complacent far too long. This is just the medicine he's needed." 

Upon overhearing this comment, Miza and the other females began to laugh. Ariana couldn't help but join in. She didn't know what the joke was but she couldn't wait for the punchline.

**_To be continued in Part III of "Tengu"_**


	3. Tengu: Part 3

**Tengu**

A TGS-based story

by C.S. Hayden

Characters from the "Gargoyles" show are the property of Disney and Buena Vista Television. All other characters are from The Gargoyles Saga fanfiction series and the story "Yama's Path" by Kimberly Towle. Scene from "Much Ado About Nothing" and Sonnet CXXX by William Shakespeare.

**Part III**

Ariana pretended not to notice the horned silhouette in the doorway as she concentrated on the movements of the tea ceremony, gracefully letting her hands flow from one element to the other. In a way, it was a relief that Kirin was watching; Ariana had been a little concerned when he hadn't showed up to roost at sunup. O-tama had told her privately that Kirin often roosted alone but Ariana had still found it worrisome. 

It had been a relief to have the _Chaji_to focus on. O-tama had arranged to have it in the center of the main meeting room. Tatami mats were laid out in a horseshoe-shaped space around Ariana so she could serve as hostess. Miza had assisted in serving the three-course meal during the first part of the ceremony but all eyes were on Ariana as she went through the subtle nuances of her performance. Each movement, the curve of her hand, the drape of her sleeve, the way she held herself – all these things had meaning and depth to her audience.

The warm aromatic smell of green tea filled the air as the first dipperful of hot water hit it. Ariana let the ladle handle slide between forefinger and thumb as she returned it to its place. Her hand drifted over the whisk and floated down like a leaf to pick it up. Gently, artfully, she churned the tea to a thick frothy paste, adding water until it was the correct consistency. She presented the tea bowl, a ceramic vessel with a delicate blue glaze, to Takamatsu as highest ranking guest for his approval.

"Lovely," he said as he raised the bowl for all to admire. Their party was six; Takamatsu and his mate O-tama, Doryo, the toad-faced elder and his parrot-faced mate, Bana, Miza and her mate, Goro, who, to Ariana's surprise, was the potter who had made the tea set. Takamatsu sipped from the bowl, wiped the rim, and passed it to O-tama, who did the same, as did the next person in line until the bowl passed back to Ariana.

"A most excellent _matcha_," O-tama commented as the others nodded their heads approvingly. "You prepared it well."

"It pleases me to hear you say so," Ariana responded politely, "but I know I have much more practice ahead of me until I can be considered a tea master." She rinsed and wiped the tea bowl in preparation for making the _usa__ chan_ or thin tea to be served with the dessert course. "Honorable Goro-_san_, I must again compliment you on this beautiful tea service. This glaze is so beautiful – it is like a blue moon in a winter sky."

Boar-tusked Goro bowed in return. "It is simply a glaze made from local materials. What types of glazes do they have in Ishimura?"

"The tea set that I used was a murasaki glaze, dark brown with a purple sheen. My friend Midori, who is also a tea hostess, has a set with an unusual metallic sheen. I do not know what the process is called…"

"Raku," Goro answered helpfully. "I've used mostly copper on my pottery although silver gives a more subtle effect."

"Really?" Ariana made a show of examining the tea bowl again. There were the faintest silvery traces like mist rising from the water mingled with the pale azure glaze. "And you can find that around here?"

"It is all in where you look," Doryo said dismissively. "In my day, humans were still mining in these mountains. The ore's still there but very difficult to extract."

"Truly? Kirin-_san_ mentioned that they mined silver here during the Meji era," Ariana said demurely as she passed around small trays of sweets, "but surely, venerable Doryo-_san_, you are far too young to remember those times, _neh_?" She could feel the cavities forming as she flattered the elder with more sweet talk. The old toad had been openly hostile at the beginning of the _chaji_ and only by emulating her friend Midori's mannerisms had she been able to keep him placated. 

Bana tittered, having had too much sake earlier with their meal. "Too young?" she cackled. "Older than the hills, that's what you are, Doryo-_san_!"

As Doryo began to splutter, Takamatsu intervened. "Yes, I remember those days too, old friend," he said mildly. "The world was changing but we Tengu kept to the old ways." He sighed. "It is a pity that that too must change."

Ariana began to prepare the thin tea, careful not to rush but interested in the conversation. Unlike the tea she made before, the _usa__ cha_ was served in individual cups and presentation was according to rank and seniority. She glanced at O-tama who smiled but shook her head just slightly, hinting that this was not a good time to interrupt.

"You are referring no doubt to this gathering in Ishimura," Doryo said testily. "It is a long journey, Takamatsu-_sama_. We have long been separate clans – why renew ties now?"

"Why?" Bana scoffed. "Old fool, have you not noticed? The Three are grown males and soon they will want to seek mates." She took her tea from Ariana with a small bow. "I have seen how curious they have been about Ari-_chan_ here. They will not be content to remain here, knowing that there are females their own age in Ishimura."

Ariana bowed deeply to her guests. "I am so sorry that my visit has been so disruptive, revered elders." Doryo snorted and declined to comment, slurping his tea loudly.

"I agree with Bana-_san_," Miza said in her quiet, flute-like voice. "My Mozu has often spoken of his wish to visit Ishimura, not just as a social occasion but also to further his healer studies." She smiled apologetically at O-tama. "Kirin-_san_ has spoken highly of the healers at Ishimura. Mozu could learn different things from them."

O-tama nodded beneficently back. "This is indeed so," she agreed. "Mozu has been studying with me since he was very small. He knows my tonics and cures nearly as well as I do. Kirin tells me that Kado, the Ishimuran healer, is quite a skilled surgeon and has even made complicated repairs to wings. Such knowledge would be of benefit to us."

"There are plans for such educational exchanges at the Grand Miai," Ariana said helpfully as she finished serving the tea. "Many of my peers are serving apprenticeships within their home clans. I know of an apprentice healer coming from London, and I met two from China. Toe—Mozu would be in good company."

Takamatsu cocked his head, stirring the fringe of ragged feathers on his head. "I shall give the matter serious thought," he said slowly. "I would like Takakura to meet Kai-_sama_. Seeing how Lord Kai manages his clan would be useful for Tak when it comes time for him to take my place."

"Do not forget Tancho," Goro added. "He is a fine young male, worthy of any female."

"It is not wise to send all our young warriors away!" Doryo proclaimed, thumping his empty tea cup down on the tatami mat forcefully. "What if they are dazzled by the ways of the Ishimurans? What if they choose not to return? What will become of us then?" He glared spitefully at Ariana who hastily lowered her eyes.

"Peace, Doryo," Takamatsu said soothingly. "I said I would consider the idea. It is a decision not lightly taken and I will need the counsel of the elders before I make a final choice." He smiled gently at Ariana and bowed solemnly. "I thank you, Lady Ariana, for performing the tea ceremony for us. It is pleasing to know that the old ways are still honored by the young."

"It is I who am honored, Takamatsu-_sama_," Ariana responded. She exchanged pleasantries with the other guests and saw them to the door. When she was at last alone, Ariana slumped against the inner wall and heaved a great sigh of relief. "Whew! I'm glad that's over with!"

She loosened the obi on her yukata and began the arduous business of tidying up. Miza and O-tama reappeared in their everyday clothes just as she had all the dishes stacked neatly on a tray and was rolling up the tatami mats. 

"Here, I'll take those," Miza said, reaching for the tray. "Kiyo is just finishing with the supper dishes." She smiled. "Goro is very pleased that you like his pottery. He does not often get compliments."

"It's lovely work," Ariana said sincerely, "and so very different. I get tired of the dark colors that are used in traditional tea sets."

"I'll mention that!"

O-tama showed her where to put away the mats. "You did very well, Ari-_chan_," the Tengu healer said as they made their way to her hut. "Doryo was being his usual quarrelsome self but you took just the right tone with him."

"I've been around my share of grumpy elders," Ariana answered. "Do the others feel the same way he does?"

"Opinions are mixed," O-tama said simply. "They need time to fully understand the opportunity that you've offered them."

"Me?" Ariana blinked. "I'm just the messenger."

"But you are the face that they know," O-tama pointed out, "not some stranger far away. They can put their trust in you."

Toe was sitting on the porch of O-tama's hut, grinding up a selection of herbs and tending a charcoal brazier that had a pot of water boiling on it. The brown-feathered male looked up at their approach and bobbed his head in a small bow. "_Konbanwa, obaasan_," he said politely. "Good evening, Ari-_chan_."

O-tama sniffed delicately. "Ah," she said knowingly, "so Kirin-_san_ has a swollen head this evening, _neh_? I had wondered why he was lurking about earlier." She dipped her fingers into the stone mortar and checked his mixture, touching her fingers briefly to her lips. "Yes, you have the proportions just so. Well done, my apprentice."

"What's wrong with Kirin?" Ariana asked curiously. 

Toe clicked his beak ruefully. "Sensei has a hangover."

"Wouldn't stone sleep cure that?"

"It would," O-tama commented wryly, "if Kirin stopped drinking well before sunrise. The saki we make here is very good but strong. If one drinks too much, it thins the blood and stays in the body even during stone sleep." She eyed Toe. "There is a strong taste of ginger in your potion. Was he very sick?"

Toe nodded. "I was there when he woke up. First he roared, then he spewed."

"Eeeeuw." Ariana wrinkled her nose.

O-tama merely arched her brow ridges. "Better out than in. Then what?"

"He went to soak in the hot springs. He felt better afterwards but asked if I would make a tonic for him." Toe looked at O-tama anxiously. "You were busy and as I have made it before –"

"No, no, you acted correctly, Mozu," O-tama said kindly. "Add the water and let it steep while Ari-_chan_ goes inside to change." She gave a saintly smile. "She can take the tonic up to him."

Ariana and Toe both stared at her. "Are you sure?" Ariana asked in dismay. "He may not want to see me at all!" She had the distinct feeling that she was the cause of Kirin's inebriation.

"If he complains, tell him that I had tasks for Mozu," O-tama replied lightly. "Do not let his manner trouble you, Ari-_chan__._ He has brought it on himself."

It began to rain as she headed up the path and she barely made it to the cover of the cedars before the raindrops started to come down in buckets. She stood on the porch for a few minutes not only to flick the water off her wings before entering, but also to steady her nerves. Her conscience was bothering her even more than it had before. Kirin may have been a complete jerk to her but she didn't like thinking that she had upset him so much that she'd made him sick. Listening carefully, she could hear faint sounds inside and she rapped sharply on the doorframe.

Kirin groaned. "Come." His voice was rough and gravelly.

Carefully, Ariana slid the door open and stepped inside. Kirin was slumped over a low table, one hand propping up his head as his hair dried in damp knotted snarls all around his horns. Irrationally, her fingers itched for a comb and an industrial strength bottle of detangler. He was wearing a plain grey yukata with a quilted haori draped over his caped wings. The reason for this became apparent as Ariana came closer – in spite of the warm summer night, Kirin kept shivering.

"Boy, you're a mess."

His head snapped up. Kirin groaned and shut his bloodshot eyes. "What," he ground out slowly, "are you doing here?"

"O-tama said to bring this tonic to you," Ariana said simply, sinking to her knees. She took the cup off the top of the ceramic bottle and poured it for him. "Everyone else was busy."

"Well, you've done your task," he said gruffly. "You can go."

"Too bad," Ariana quipped as she slipped her backpack off. "She said to make sure you drank it all."

Growling under his breath, Kirin sipped the tonic and curled his lip at the taste. He stared at the pile of papers on the table in an obvious attempt to ignore her. Ariana noticed that they were the same papers that they had taken from the mysterious surveyor. They were assorted into piles and he had been making notes on a legal-sized pad of grid paper with a ballpoint pen.  It would seem that Kirin wasn't entirely following the 'no human things' rule himself but she wisely bit her tongue and said nothing. He shivered again and tucked the quilted jacket tighter around him.

"Are you cold?" She refilled his cup.

"Yes." 

"Why?"

He gave her a baleful stare. "Must you chatter at me like a magpie?"

"I'm just curious. You don't have to bite my head off." 

"At least then you would be quiet."

"Look," Ariana said with a heavy sigh, "let's call a truce, okay? What I said yesterday – I was out of line, I know that. Sometimes I'm too much of a go girl to think about what I'm saying and by the time I realize that, I've already said it and –"

Kirin held up his hand. "Enough."

"But –" 

"Apology accepted." He rubbed his forehead between his eyebrows. "Ari-_chan_, my head is one giant throbbing pain, and before we can have any kind of civilized conversation, O-tama's tonic needs time to work."

"Oh." She smirked a little. "I guess that's okay. You do look like road kill." Casting a wistful look at his library, she asked, "Do you mind if I stay and read? I started **_Jane Eyre_** yesterday."

"Go head," he said, grimacing as he drank a little more tonic. "No one else is reading it."

For a long time, the only sounds were the rustle of Ariana's book and the scratch of Kirin's pen. Ariana slowly shifted the cushions around to suit her, unconsciously building a nest around her. It took some time to find a comfortable position but once she did, she read voraciously as she usually did with an old favorite.

Kirin's voice was quiet but penetrating. "You must like Brontë. You haven't said a word in over an hour."

"It's been years since I've read this one," she said absently. "Graeme and I were home-schooled. Our clan leader, Goliath, and his daughter Angela are big readers. They supervised our literature studies."

"Where in the story are you?"

"Jane and Mr. Rochester are flirting," Ariana said with a smirk. "I will never understand why he had to play games with her. It must be a Victorian thing."

"He was afraid," Kirin commented. There was something in his voice that made Ariana look up. He was staring at the papers on the deck but she could tell his eyes were far away. "Rochester was afraid of wanting something that he couldn't have so he kept trying to push her away."

"But why Jane? 'Small, plain, Quakerish Jane?'" She laughed. "He could have kept the nutcase in manor and stayed in London with the hot society chick."

"After a certain age, Ari-_chan_," Kirin said wryly as he resumed writing, "a male realizes that a mate's qualities as a companion are more important than transient things like sex appeal. Jane's intelligence, spirit and wit made her beautiful to Rochester."

"Yeah, right." Ariana shook her head and marked her place in the book with a leaf that had blown in through the door. "If he respected her, he would have been up front with her from the beginning." She carried it over to the table and began to dig through her backpack. 

"He wanted a fresh start," Kirin countered. "Think of it, married all those years but no one to share his life. He saw the future in Jane because she knew nothing of his past." He gave a long huffing sigh that make his fish-like whiskers swing in circles over the table.

"Speaking of the past," Ariana asked, still sorting through her bag, "how's your head?"

"Better," he admitted. "O-tama makes very effective if nasty-tasting tonics." He scowled at the empty bottle on the corner of the table. "I should really have better sense than to drink like that."

"Why did you?" She sighed and looked down, not wanting to meet his eyes. "I can't help thinking that I had something to do with it."

"Why should you care?" he asked brusquely. "You hardly know me."

"Sometimes words hurt," she said simply. "I know how bad I feel when someone is careless enough to say something I might not want to hear, whether it's true or not." She sighed and twisted her fingers. "I've never driven anyone to drink before and, well, it bothers me." When no comment was forthcoming, Ariana glanced over at him beneath her lashes. Kirin was staring at her with a troubled expression of disbelief and sadness. She tilted her head and looked back at him. "What?"

"Nothing." He couldn't meet her eyes and huffed, covering his discomfort by sorting through the papers on the table. "As it turns out, you were right about these survey people," he said, changing the topic. "Their documents are very puzzling."

"Oh?" She pulled something out of her backpack and tucked it in her lap. "How so?"

"There are a lot of scientific terms – 'GPR' and 'hole-to-hole tomography' and 'gravimetry.'" Kirin shook his head. There's a reference to a geophysical survey done in 2002 to chart the Hyogo-ken Nabbu Earthquake of 1995."

"Mmm-hmm?"

Scanning the page in his hand, Kirin puffed out his lip and scowled. "I wish I had a current science book. None of these terms are familiar." When no comment from Ariana was forthcoming, he glanced over at her and his eyes first widened, then narrowed in a testy glare. "What are you eating?" he demanded indignantly.

Ariana twirled the cookie stick in her mouth around to the other side of her beak and slowly crunched it down. "Pocky."

"Not… chocolate pocky?" He sounded curiously wistful.

"Double chocolate. I'm starving – the tea hostess doesn't eat during the ceremony, you know." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Kirin's mouth was drawn down in a pout so comical that it made his face look twice as long. "Poor Kirin-_san_," she sighed artfully as she pulled another stick from the foil pouch that she had hidden on her lap beneath the table's edge, "you've got a hangover. You probably wouldn't want any."

A barely-audible whimper came from his direction.

She licked some of the frosting off. "Mmmmm…. Yummy." 

"Heartless wench."

Munching, Ariana merely commented, "Funny, I wouldn't mind sharing if someone were to ask nicely."

Growling briefly, Kirin ground out, "Lady Ariana? May I please have some pocky?"

Slowly Ariana drew a chocolate-coated cookie stick out of the pouch and contemplated it briefly before handing it to Kirin. The Japanese gargoyle put just the tip of it in his mouth, twirling it from one dangling barbel to the other, clearly savoring the taste. Ariana bit the inside of her cheek as she tried desperately not to giggle at him. He closed his eyes rapturously as he consumed the last of it and carefully licked his lips for the last miniscule specks.

Ariana shook her head. "Okay, now I know why you're always grumpy. You've got a sweet tooth and you're living in health food central!"

Shrugging, Kirin tried to put on a show of indifference by returning his attention to the table but when he glanced back up at her, there was a self-conscious smile hiding about the corners of his mouth. She rolled her eyes and let him take another from the open pouch, setting the pocky box on the table between them. Something about the way he was trying not to wolf down the treats gave her an idea.

"You know, since it's raining," Ariana began sweetly, "we could use my palmtop to do a background check on this company. I bet you could get your hands on it easy enough." 

"Impossible," Kirin said, shaking his head. "The elders were adamant; the Tengu do not use human technology."

"That's only because they've never tried it," Ariana countered. "You and me, we're different. We learned to co-exist with humans and we know there's nothing wrong with it." She pursed her lips. "We'd only need my computer for a little while. No one would be the wiser."

Kirin bristled. "I've lived among them for over twenty years! That would be abusing their trust in me."

"Are you saying in all that time," she asked skeptically, "that you've never bent the rules? Not even once?" She leaned towards him. "You've got an awful lot of non-Tengu stuff in here. I'm pretty sure they just didn't magically appear in the schoolroom."

He snorted. "That's different – O-tama wanted me to give the Three the same kind of education that they would have received in Ishimura. She cleared it with Takamatsu."

"What if I sweeten the deal?" Ariana dug in her backpack. "I bet you could be bribed for the right price."

"Impossible!" Kirin crossed his arms. "There is nothing you could possibly offer me--!" His nostrils twitched as she moved closer.

Waving a silver-and-brown wrapped bar under his nose, Ariana teased in a sing-song voice, "Mmmm…., it's sixteen ounces of genuine, American-made, pure chocolaty goodness." She tilted her head and grinned. "What do you say? A pound of chocolate for an hour of computer time?"

He gave a whining growl. 

"C'mon… you know want it."

"You are an evil wench."

"I'm a girl, Kirin-_san_." She wrinkled her nose fetchingly. "We're all evil. So what do you say, mmm?"

Kirin glared at her from beneath his furry eyebrows. His eyes lingered for a moment on the jumbo bar of candy. "You… can access the internet on that little computer?"

"It's got digital dial-up," Ariana answered cheerfully. "My brother set it up for me for the trip."

To his credit, Kirin kept up a steady glower for several minutes while he considered her proposition. She merely smiled and kept eye contact with him; according to Fox, that was the most important thing in a negotiation. When his eyes drifted to the lazy way her tail was curling back and forth, she knew she had him hooked. Finally, Kirin rose unsteadily to his feet and lurched behind the partition to his personal quarters. There was the sound of things being moved and the creak of a lid being opened. Kirin came back with her palmtop in his hands. 

"It was in here the whole time?" Ariana exclaimed. "I thought in was in the strong room!"

Settling back down slowly and tucking his haori back in place, Kirin shrugged. "We built the schoolroom on top of the old strong room. What better place to keep something secure than in a weapon master's dojo?" He handed the small computer to her. "Show me how this thing works."

"It's easy," Ariana said and popped it open, taking out the stylus from the back to run the keyboard. "See? This is the dial-up and this—"

"What is that?" Kirin asked, leaning over her shoulder and pointing at the email icon blinking angrily at them. 

She rolled her eyes. "That's my annoying brother checking up on me. Ignore him."

"Your techno geek brother that might know what those probes were?" 

Ariana blinked. "Good point." She used the stylus to open the mailbox and promptly found Graeme's web conference link. It took a minute or two for her brother's face to fill the tiny window. 

"_Oniichan__!!_" Graeme started to crow but then stopped and squinted at the screen. "Oh-kay, who are you and what're you doing with my sister?"

"I see the family resemblance," Kirin said dryly. "He's got your smart mouth."

"Ouch!" Graeme quipped. "Who's this guy, sis?"

Ariana smirked at Kirin, who huffed and turned his head disgustedly. "This is Kirin, bro. He's a teacher from Ishimura. Kai might know him."

Graeme raised a brow ridge. "At least Kai's still speaking to me. Mom had a fit when she found out you left town." He scowled at the screen. "Dad and I are both roosting here at the office now, thanks to you."

"Sorry…"

"You are not!"

"Children, please!" Kirin rubbed his forehead. "Ariana says you know science, Graeme-_san_. We need to find some things out."

"What's up?" Graeme listened attentively as Ariana filled him in on the mysterious survey crew. They could see him looking down occasionally as he typed notes. 

"—so what we need is to find out about this Wariguri mining company and what they're doing here." Ariana looked at the image of her brother hopefully. "Think you can dig up some dirt?"

"All ready working," Graeme said, rolling briefly out of the picture as he moved to another workstation. His voice grew faint and hollow for a few minutes. "For starters, 'GPR' is short for 'ground-piercing radar' and 'hole-to-hole tomography' is a type of GPR that employs a series of sensors. It's used in micro-gravity surveys to measure the rise and fall of the earth's crust in a seismic area. They used to drill boltholes and lower the sensors down but the latest models are more efficient."

Kirin raised a skeptical eyebrow. "And you know this because --?"

"Xanatech manufactures the microprocessor that's used in the sensor. I recognize the model."

"That figures," Ariana commented. "Ever since the quake that hit New York, Xanatos has been hot on geophysical research. I remember when he sent us out to retrieve that famous geologist, Dr. Van Weelden, from that dinosaur dig site just so he could have her analyze data for him."

"It'll take me a while to get into Wariguri's database," Graeme said, coming back into view. "They've got a killer firewall." He cracked his knuckles and gave them a wicked grin.

"Arrgh, me hearties?" Ariana quipped, knowing full well her brother's hacking abilities.

"Aye, cap'n! They's about t' be boarded, they is." Her green-skinned twin winked at her. "I'll send you the data as soon as I can, all right?"

"Thanks, Graeme – you're a sweetie."

"_Domo arigato_, Graeme-_san_," Kirin added. He blinked as the web link closed. "I did not realize that technology had come so far. I feel humble – and quite out-of-touch."

"You'll catch up," Ariana teased. "While Graeme sneaks in the back door, we'll see what else Wariguri Mining Ltd. is into on the 'net." She opened a web browser and tapped in a search request. "Hmmm….. lots of stuff, it seems." 

"Interesting." 

Picking one at random, she opened it but promptly pouted. "Oh, bother – it's in Japanese. I can't read this!"

"Luckily, I can," he commented. "Hold it still for a moment."

As Kirin leaned forward to read the computer screen, his barbels slid over her shoulder like a pair of skinny snakes. Ariana shuddered. "Eeeeuw, you're dangling on me."

"Sorry," Kirin said absently. He hooked first one, then the other barbel with his tongue and sucked them into his cheeks and upper lip with a long, drawn-out slurp. His cheeks were puffed out like a hamster storing seeds.

Staring at him, the corners of her mouth began to twitch. Ariana squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to keep from laughing and failed miserably. An irresistible giggle began low in her belly and built until it burst out uncontrollably. She fell over onto her side and lay in the floor giggling and pointing at him. Kirin merely crossed his arms and regarded her stoically, shaking his head.

"Weally, Awi-_chan_," he said, his voice distorted by the barbels stuffed in his mouth, "id's nod dat funny."   

"Jalapeña!" Ariana squealed. "Stop it! I'm dying here!" Her giggles turned into hiccups as she rocked back and forth, holding her ribs.

Spitting out his barbels, Kirin turned his head away from her but the shaking of his shoulders gave him away. It started as a deep, quiet chuckle but slowly his deep laughter filled the room, punctuated by Ariana's hiccups. He grinned shyly over his shoulder at her as he laughed and it was like the weight of years had been lifted from him. 

"Honestly," he chided in a curiously gentle tone, "we will never get anything done if we keep this up."

"Just keep *hic* your whiskers *hic* out of your mouth," she commented, "or I'll never *hic* be able to *hic* stop."

"Very well." Kirin picked up the computer and scanned the Japanese website she had selected. He was all business but a certain formal stiffness was gone from his posture. "This site is for the Japanese Geological Survey. Wariguri provided them data for their earthquake early detection research."

"Seems *hic* pretty normal."

"Perhaps," he said slowly, narrowing his eyes. "An ambitious adversary shows one face at night and another during the day."

Ariana looked at Kirin shrewdly. "That sounds like *hic* a kind of *hic* Zen thing." 

"I knew someone like that once," he said absently. "How does one change the search parameters?"

Patiently, Ariana talked Kirin through the intricacies of using Graeme's microcomputer. She was impressed at how quickly the Ishimuran scholar picked things up, in spite of his years spent away from modern technology. Unfortunately, she was having less success at controlling her involuntary abdominal muscle spasms.

Finally, Kirin blew out his lips noisily and sent his fish-like whiskers flying. "Go see O-tama, Ari-_chan_," he said bluntly, "before you explode!"

"Are *hic* you sure?" she asked meekly. "Graeme *hic* might call back."

"The rain is letting up and I'm feeling well enough to take a brief trip into Kobe," he replied. "You can't very well sneak around on the rooftops if you keep that up. You're too loud."

"Ha-ha," Ariana retorted but the effect was spoiled by three loud hiccups in a row.

* * * * *

O-tama stood there shaking her head. "Strangest case I've ever seen," she mused thoughtfully. "Normally, sipping pickle brine works like a charm."

"Ginger tea had no effect either," Toe commented. He frowned as he scanned an age-stained scroll. "It says here an infusion of dill and lemon is effective but we don't have either of those."

"Why me?" Ariana moaned, holding her stomach. "My abs *hic* are killing me!" She got up from the porch of the healer's hut and began to pace. 

"Perhaps you should concentrate on your breathing," Miza suggested. She had brought the brine from the food stores and had remained behind out of curiosity. Word of Ariana's distress had attracted quite few other Tengu and they were all enjoying the novelty of her neverending hiccups. "Try slow, regular breaths."

"I tried *hic* my yoga breathing," Ariana protested, "but it just *hic* made them *hic* even stronger!"

Tic trotted down the hill. "Sensei's coming," he reported to O-tama. "He feels much better now. He was just getting dressed."

"Good," O-tama said firmly, "I want to know just what he did to cause all this."

"He just *hic* made me laugh," Ariana said, shrugging and hiccupping at once. "I just get *hic* like this some*hic* times."

"Aren't you done yet?" Kirin asked, slapping her hard on the rear. "We have better things to be doing than watching you make a spectacle of yourself." He walked right past her and helped himself to the tea that was setting on the porch.

"**HEY**!!" Ariana yelped indignantly, rubbing the seat of her pants with both hands. "What do you think you're doing, mister? That **HURT**!!"

Kirin raised one hairy eyebrow. "You're very welcome."

"What!?!"

O-tama and Miza looked at each other and began to giggle behind their hands. Toe grinned sheepishly and began to roll up the scroll. The onlookers tittered among themselves as they slowly drifted back to whatever they had been doing before. Belatedly, Ariana realized that her sudden outburst of temper had broken the cycle and that her hiccups had vanished.

"Oh." She glared at Kirin and gave her rear one last rub. "Gee, thanks." She was pretty sure she'd have the imprint of his fingers on her backside for hours.

He gave her a smug smile over the edge of his tea cup with a slight lift of his eyebrows and said nothing, although he seemed entirely too pleased with himself.

"Are you feeling better, Kirin-_san_?" O-tama inquired politely. "I hope the tonic that Mozu made served its purpose."

"Indeed," Kirin answered mildly. "I feel well enough to escort Ari-_chan_ into town." He scowled at her. "It seems that she was expected to call in regularly. Lady Sata will be worried."

Picking up on her cue, Ariana sulked convincingly. "You promised you wouldn't say anything!"

"I did not," Kirin retorted. "I said that I wouldn't mention it to Takamatsu or the elders." He smiled at the Tengu healer. "What O-tama hears is for O-tama's ears, _neh_?"

"As it should be," O-tama agreed. "You will take care to get back in time?"

"Of course." 

Tic and Toe perked up their ears at this news. "Perhaps we could accompany you part of the way, sensei," Tic ventured casually. "Tak is flying sweeps with Goro and we are to go out and relieve them."

"I don't see why not," Kirin answered back. "It has been some time since we've patrolled the western ranges."

"Kirin-san," O-tama said quietly, "take care. You know what the others would think." Ariana was surprised at the urgent tone of the healer's voice and looked between them with a baffled expression. 

"Not to worry, O-tama-san," he said simply. "We will be back before you know it." He finished his tea and left the cup on the porch. "Very well, youngsters – let's go." Tic and Toe were halfway up the hill before Kirin finished speaking. 

Punching Kirin in the arm as they walked up to the launch site, Ariana scowled at him. "_Baka_ -- my tush still smarts."

Kirin raised an eyebrow. "Are you inviting me to kiss it and make it better?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You wish." 

"Then don't complain, quarrelsome thing." They reached the top of the bluffs where the two younger males were waiting. Kirin took Ariana by the shoulders and turned her around so he could put the blindfold back on her.

"You know," she said lightly, "the guys are going to get the wrong idea about dating girls if you keep this up." She was answered by Tic and Toe's enthusiastic laughter.

Kirin merely huffed. "Rules are rules," he replied curtly. "Try not to cause so much trouble this time." He turned her around and she could feel the wind whipping up though the gorge below. "Tancho and Mozu are already airborne. Come along now – they're waiting for us."

Ariana reached out her hand and found his fingers grasping for hers. They touched, tentatively at first but without a word, their fingers twined together as he led her off into the open air. She didn't feel so much like a wayward hatchling tonight and wondered why. His fingers tightened on hers for a moment as a strong updraft sent them soaring. 

"How's your wing?" Kirin called out. 

"Fine," she replied, wondering why he'd even bothered to ask after the rough way he'd hauled her back to the village the night before. He said nothing but his thumb traced restless circles against her hand.

Two direction changes and a wind shift later, he pulled her to him and removed the blindfold, letting his knuckles lightly brush her brow ridge. "That's far enough," he said gruffly. "I'll take this." 

"Whoa." Ariana blinked at the sight of millions of flickering lights spread out before her as they crested over the mountains. "Is this Kobe? I didn't know it was so close – I came from Osaka when I first arrived."

"You went the long way around then," Tic joked, gliding just off her left wing. "Kobe isn't as big as Osaka but it's closer to the village."

"Hey! Where's Toe?"

"Mozu? We saw Tak and Goro coming back from patrol and he went to see if old needlenose wanted to join us." He laughed. "Tak hates missing out on anything."

Ariana joined him in laughing at the joke. "Oh, I don't think I'll do any joyriding tonight. I'm not sure Kirin's nerves can stand it."

"You're a trouble magnet," Kirin growled above and to the right. "Something is bound to happen."

Tak and Toe came soaring in from the east. "Hey!" Tak called out. "What do you mean, taking Ari-_chan_ out on the town and not inviting me?" He glared hard at Tic. "You just had to have her all to yourself, didn't you?"

Kirin snorted but Ariana spoke up to diffuse the situation. "Please," she said as she rolled her eyes, "I'm not a toy you can fight over, guys. Kirin and I want to check out that mining company. If you guys are going to act up, then you can go back home."

"Is that so?" Tak flicked his eyes sharply at Kirin. "Sensei? Do the elders know about this?"

"O-tama knows," Kirin replied, tapping a finger to his nose, "and that's all that matters. We go in, check things out, and go back to the village. You three could use the experience gliding in a city. It's more difficult than you think."

"Yeah, crash into a microwave relay tower and it's goodbye, gonads!" Ariana gave a giggling snort when the Three stared at her. "What?"

"I'll explain that comment later," Kirin interjected. "The last thing I want is for her to go into hysterics and start hiccupping again."

"So where are we headed?" Ariana asked. 

"The central business district," Kirin answered as he led them higher over the city. "Wariguri has the main offices there with some warehouse space down towards the docks." 

"But, Sensei," Toe said nervously, "we've never gone so far into the city before."

"Speak for yourself," Tak snorted. "Tancho and I have been here plenty of times."

"Going to the ball games with Goro is hardly what I'd call a night out on the town," Tic retorted. He grinned sheepishly at Ariana. "My master loves baseball. There's one pro team here in Kobe and two others over in Osaka."

"Let me think," Ariana mused, "that would the Blue Wave, the Tigers, and the Buffalos, right?"

Tak's mouth dropped open. "You," he said slowly, "know baseball?"

"Well, duh!" She laughed at them. "Hey, even I know about the famous ex-Blue Wave hitter Ichiro Suzuki! I saw him play once when the Mariners were in town playing the Yankees. I'll have to admit, it took me a while to get to speed on J-ball. If it wasn't for Toshi roping me into a game with the hatchlings at Ishimura, I'd have never gotten it all straight."

"Toshi?" Kirin asked suddenly. "Is this a suitor of yours?"

"Hardly – he belongs to Midori." Some of the enthusiasm left her voice. "No, Toshi is a bigger baseball fanatic than I am. I helped him organize the ballgame since he had rookery duty. The kids had a blast."

"Ah." Kirin hesitated for a moment and then asked, "I suppose there is a new head rookery keeper, _neh_? Miya was retiring when I left."

"Sakaki, Kai-_sama_'s mate, has that job now. She's very good with them."

"Yes, I remember. She took over as assistant teacher when I started training under Setsu for my weapons mastery." He blew out his breath with a troubled sigh and frowned.

At that point of the conversation, they crossed over the suburban boundaries and became dazzled by the neon glare of downtown Kobe. As accustomed as she was to Manhattan's hustle, Ariana couldn't believe the bright lights and colors of the shopping district. People were still out and about in the streets, in spite of the late hour -- going into restaurants, looking in store windows, and lining up to get into clubs.

"And they call New York the city that never sleeps!" Ariana said ruefully, swooping up and over a power line. 

"It's very hot and humid this time of year," Kirin commented. "It only makes sense to get out at night when it's cooler." He squinted at an address on a building. "The business district is only a few blocks east – this way." Turning on a wingtip, the older gargoyle led them into the narrow steel and glass canyons between increasingly tall buildings. 

The nearness of the buildings didn't bother Ariana but she couldn't help noticing the nervous way the young Tengu males kept glancing to the sides as if they felt the walls were closing in. Toe kept raising and lowering his feathered crest like he was communicating his agitation via semaphore.  His tall brother, Tic, was fingering his prayer beads and muttering under his breath. Out of the three, only long-nosed Tak seemed unperturbed but if he flew any closer to her, he'd be riding piggyback, and frankly, Ariana could do without that.

She waited until they crossed an intersection and used the ambient heat rising from the street to spiral up to a higher altitude. "That's better," she said as Kirin began to scowl at her. "Flying below roof level always makes me feel a little claustrophobic, doesn't it you?" She rolled her eyes slowly from Toe to Tic and raised her brow ridges expressively.

"Ah, so it does," Kirin answered slowly, returning her gesture. "We need to find the Zanseki building. It's listed as a fifteen story structure on East Naishi Avenue."

"So," she quickly counted windows on a neighboring building and adjusted her flight path accordingly, "about this tall, yes?" 

Kirin nodded. "Mozu, you go high and stay directly above Ariana. Tancho and Takakura, spread out. The quicker we find this place, the better."

The streets were less crowded in the business district and Kirin was able to sweep down low to check addresses frequently. They located the Zanseki building not far from the Hansai Expressway. Unfortunately, there appeared to be no way in.

"This place is locked up tighter than one of Xanatos' vaults!" Ariana exclaimed as they finished a third sweep of the building. She flew in close and managed to get a talon grip on a narrow ridge over a bank of windows. Her feet scrabbled against the polished stonework as she hung by one hand like a rock climber.

"Careful!" Kirin hissed nervously. 

She saw his reflection in the window as he hovered directly behind her and started to smile when she noticed something in his shadow. Narrowing her eyes, Ariana could see the tell-tale red pinpricks of a laser sensory web. "Shards!" she swore. "What have they been up to that they need this kind of security system?" 

"Do you see a way in?"

"No," she said finally. "They've got lasers and I don't have the right tools for bypassing it. We should probably see what Graeme's dug up on his end."

 "All right," Kirin agreed. "I don't like being in the open this much. We should go back to the village." He looked about but remained hovering, held aloft by his great wingspan.

"A-hem!"

"What?"

Ariana rolled her eyes. "If someone would get his hulking carcass out of the way, I could get off the building!"

Huffing indignantly, Kirin looped up over the top of the building while Ariana back flipped neatly into open air. He was arguing with the Three while she reached the roof. 

"But, Sensei!" Tic was saying, "We'll never get a better opportunity!"

Tak raised his bulbous cleft chin stubbornly. "Let the elders live in the past if they wish! We're tired of hiding in shadows!"

"If we're gone too long," Kirin said in a reasonable tone of voice, "not even O-tama will be able to save your hide."

"What's the problem?" Ariana asked cheerfully. "Let's just take the scenic route back to the mountains. That ballpark we were talking about earlier is on the way, isn't it? I'd like to see that." 

"Yes!" Tic agreed. "That would be perfect, sensei. They should still be playing with the rain delay." Next to him, Toe nodded anxiously.

"Please?" Ariana crooned, leaning against Kirin's arm and fluttering her eyelashes. "Pretty please with pocky on it?" She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder like a purring kitten.

"Oh, stop that!" Kirin huffed and turned his head away from her but not before she caught the amused look in his eyes. "All right – I suppose a few innings couldn't hurt."

Tak looked disgusted. "Why did that work for her? It never works for us!"

"Gentlemen, the first thing you need to know about females is that they make their own rules," Kirin said wryly, "and that we mere males are not meant to understand them."

"As it should be," Ariana said brightly. She tweaked the end of Tak's long nose. "Swoop tag – you're it!" Grinning, she jumped over the edge of the building. Tic and Toe exchanged a look and dove after her.

Pausing on the corner of a building, Ariana spotted a familiar sight in Japan – a row of brightly lit vending machines half way down the block. She carefully scoped out her surrounding for any signs of activity but the only lights on at street level were in a corner restaurant at the intersection. Not waiting for the males to catch up, Ariana sprang out from the wall, spun around a flagpole halfway down, and landed neatly on the sidewalk. Smiling to herself as she heard cursing overhead, she caped her wings around her shoulders and strolled along, deliberately making a show of inspecting the machines.

"What are you doing?" Kirin hissed from the shadows. "You'll be seen!"

"Oh, please!" Ariana snorted. "The only place open is that noodle shop on the corner and no one can see us from there. I'm thirsty!" She dug in her pocket and came up with a plastic card. She slid it through the scanner and punched in her selection. The vending machine thumped and rattled, drawing the Three closer. She smiled at them as she twisted off the bottle top and took a long, satisfying drink. "Mmmm…. Fizzy, lemony goodness."

"What is that?" Toe asked curiously, pointing that the card in her hand. "That's not money."

"It's a Xanatos Express cash card," Ariana said, holding it up between two fingers. "It's a traveler's best friend – no currency exchange hassles." She sipped her drink and took in their envious expressions. "What do you say, Kirin? Can I buy you guys a drink?"

Kirin huffed but his own curiosity had brought him out onto the street. "I suppose that would be harmless enough." He eyed Tak and Tic who were headed to one particular machine. "No beer."

"Sensei!"

"No fair!"

"I'm not having any, therefore you're not either." He glanced at Ariana with the ghost of a smirk on his lips. "Don't let them convince you otherwise."

"Still feeling that hangover, are we?" Ariana teased as she leaned towards him.

"Oh, do be quiet and get me one of those things you're drinking." He caught her starting to glare at him and added grudgingly, "Please."

Ariana merely smiled and turned back to the machine.

A woman screamed. Startled, Kirin and the three Tengu bolted for the shadows of the neighboring alley. They were halfway up the wall when they realized that Ariana's reaction was entirely different.  Her plastic soda bottle was lying abandoned on the sidewalk and the tip of her tail was disappearing around the corner.

"_Ar_-**REE**-_ahn_-**NAH**!!" Kirin snarled as he sprang down from the side of the building.

"Sensei, what—?"

A window shattered, sending a glittering spray of glass into the street as the body of a teenaged boy hit the pavement with a wet thud. The doors of a parked car flew open and two other young men jumped out and headed to the noodle shop, one with a swinging chain and another with an iron _jitte_.

"Secure those humans," Kirin commanded. "Ari-_chan_ is in that shop – we must get her out!" He caught the chain being swung at his head and jerked it out of its wielder's hands. Tic caught it and used it to snag the hooked iron weapon in the hands of the other attacker. "Takakura, come with me!" 

Leaping through the window, Kirin and Tak found Ariana wedged between two attackers and an old Japanese woman cowering next to an overturned table. A teenaged boy in an apron was lying unconscious besides her. One of Ariana's foes had pulled a long knife on her while the other had a plastic bag with money in it. Loose bills fluttered across the floor. Ariana had snatched up a broom and was wielding it like a bo staff to keep the knife fighter at bay. She glared at them with blazing eyes.

"Well?" she called out. "Don't just stand there!"

Both robbers glanced back for a second and that was the opening Ariana was waiting for. She bashed the knife wielder hard on the knuckles and forearm to force him to drop his weapon and then slapped him across the face with the head of the broom. The other man jumped back out of range only to crash into Kirin's broad chest. Mouth gaping, he slowly looked up into the horned gargoyle's face. He pulled a length of pipe of his jacket and swung it at him but Kirin batted it away like it was a cardboard tube. He growled and a puddle formed at the human's feet.

"I don't believe this is yours," Kirin growled as he removed the bag from the man's petrified grip. "Tak, toss him out."

"As you wish, sensei." The long-nosed Tengu grabbed the hapless robber by the back of his neck and the seat of his pants to pitch him through the window.

"Atta boy, Tak!" Ariana called out as she finished off her man with a sharp punch to the mid-section. As he crumpled to the floor, Ariana went over to see if the proprietors were all right. "Toe, get in here! I need you!" She dropped to one knee besides the injured boy.

Toe's feathered head appeared in the broken window. "Ari-_chan_?"

"Come here," Ariana said, gesturing to him. "They hit this boy on the head with a pipe. He could be very badly hurt!"

"Ariana," Kirin said in a low voice as he shoved the knife fighter out of his path with one foot, "we don't have time for this!"

True to his training, Toe only hesitated a moment before entering the noodle shop and reaching down to examine his first human patient. He checked the boy's pulse in several places and gingerly examined the head wound. "I can't feel a fracture," he said finally. "His pulse is shallow but it's getting stronger. I think he'll be fine."

"Okay," Ariana nodded. "Thanks." She turned to the old woman. "_Obaasan_?" she asked gently. "Are you all right? It's all over now."

The elderly woman groaned and put a hand to her head. "So terrible," she murmured. "There has been a gang of hoodlums running loose in Chinatown. I never thought they would come here!"

"My friends and I have caught them," Ariana said firmly. "We will leave them for the police. Do you have a phone?"

"Yes – yes, of course!" She turned back to the food counter, still without having clearly seen her rescuers, and pointed with a shaky head. "It's there." 

"Kirin?" Ariana jerked her head towards the phone.

He curled his lip. "Ariana, we should not—"

"Just do it!" She forced herself to take some of the sharpness out of her voice. "Please, Kirin – you can see she needs help. Make the call and then we can back off."

He gave a menacing growl but reached over the counter for the phone. At the sound of his voice making the call, the old woman looked up and her eyes widened. She glanced between him and Ariana, the others having retreated outside. She drew a sharp breath to scream.

"It's all right, _obaasan_," Ariana continued in the same soft, gentle tones she'd used before. "We are not the ones that tried to hurt you. I know we look strange but it is not our way to stand by and watch when bad things happen."

"You are Tengu!" the old woman gasped. "My grandmother told stories of the mountain spirits! I never thought they were true!"

Smiling winsomely, Ariana helped her up into a chair. "You'd be surprised how much truth there is in old stories, _obaasan_." She looked over as Kirin hung up the phone and nodded at her. "The police are on their way. My friends and I must go now, but we will stay close by until we know you are safe."

"Wait!" the old woman called out. "You mustn't go yet – not without a gift. It's bad luck!"

"No, it's all right," Ariana said with a quick bow. The sound of a police car was beginning to echo up the street. "We must go!"

"Take some food then!" She pointed to the counter where a plastic bag loaded with food waited. "They ordered that before they tried to rob me. Take it with my blessing!"

Sniffing the open bag, Ariana could smell the rich aromas of udon noodles and cabbage pancakes. Grinning impishly, she snatched up the takeout food and bowed to the noodle shop owner. "_Domo arigatou gozaimasu, obaasan_! My friends and I thank you!" 

She scampered out the door of the shop just as the lights of the police car came around the corner. Kirin grabbed her and pulled her into the alley. "What kept you?" he demanded.

"Guys, grab some sodas," she said coyly. "Dinner's on me."

* * * * *

The crowd chanted louder and louder as the runner rounded third and headed for home. The opposing pitcher caught the throw from right field and hurled it at the catcher. Everyone held their collective breath for the split second that the runner slid into home plate and was obscured by a cloud of dust. The umpire stood up and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. The more vocal protests were registered far above the heads of the humans below.

"Oh, come ON, ump!" Ariana yelled as she leaned over the edge of the roof. "His foot was on the bag! Do you need glasses or what?"

"Ari-_chan_," Kirin chided lightly, "the blind fool cannot hear you from up here." He had made himself comfortable with his back against a roof vent and had been content to observe the game from there while the younger gargoyles perched on the edge. 

"It's just as well," she fumed, "because I would give him a piece of my mind!"

Tic finished his bottle of soda and laughed. "She and Goro would have a fine time of this, _neh_? My master is as calm as stone but at a ball game, he is a wild man." 

"These Tigers are very good," Toe observed, "but I agree with Ari-_chan_. That blue shirt down there made a terrible call." 

"What does it matter?" Tak asked as he dug into his noodle box. "The Tigers are up by two runs and it's the bottom of the ninth." He paused to slurp up another noisy mouthful of noodles. "The Blue Wave might as well give in now."

"No," Ariana said, setting her chin stubbornly. "They still have a chance with a runner on second and third. All they need is one solid hit and they can turn this thing around." She planted both hands on the wall and looked on as intently as if she were in the batter's circle herself. "Come on, guys!" Her tail twitched back and forth in agitation.

"This I must see," Kirin said as he abandoned his seat and joined them at the roof's edge, just as the crowd started chanting.

"Uh-oh! They must be bringing out the big guns now," Ariana said excitedly.

"Guns?" Toe queried. "Firearms aren't allowed-."

Tak biffed him on the shoulder. "_Baka_, he means they are sending out a heavy hitter. Right?"

Tic nodded, pointing to the player that was walking with purpose towards home plate. "That's Hirata! He's the leading pinch-hitter for the Blue Wave," he explained enthusiastically. "He's gone twelve games with no strikeouts, and in each one he's gotten a piece of the ball, he's added another home run to his record." The tall gargoyle laughed. "If Goro were here, my master would give you his stats all the way back to his school days."

Kirin eyed the batter who was taking a few swings with the bat, while eyeing the Tiger's pitcher, and arched one hairy eyebrow. "He has a determined swing. You would think he was going to hit the ball back down that man's throat."

Ariana grinned. "If he wants to win, he will!" Rising up, she called out, "Go for it, Hirata-_san_! Tear the hide of that apple!"

On the field, the batter took his place at the plate, staring down the length of his bat before drawing it back to the ready. The umpire settled in behind the catcher, who was sending signals rapid-fire to his teammate on the mound.

"Oh, come on!" Ariana said, squinting. "A slider? He won't fall for that!"

True to her prediction, the ball sailed into the catcher's mitt and the call came out as fast as the pitch did: "Ball One!"

Ariana grinned at the Three, who were all transfixed by the action going on. "Told ya."

The pitcher checked the bases, and then whipped a hard pitch that nearly nipped tight outside the batter's box, forcing Hirata to dodge backwards.

"Quit throwing bean balls, you _bakayaro_!" Ariana yelled, waving her fist.

Kirin shot her an amused look. "You're getting worked up over this," he observed. "It's only a game, Ari-_chan_."

"Well, there are certain things you just don't do, even in baseball!"

Toe piped up. "You missed it! The pitcher got a strike in!"

Snapping her attention back to the action on the field, Ariana bounced up and down on her toes. "Come on, Hirata-_san_! Knock one out of the park!"

By now the crowd was chanting, sending encouragement to the batter as he repositioned himself in the batter's box. The catcher readjusted his mask, and then sent another quick signal to the pitcher. Another pitch... another strike!

"I think the pitcher's got Hirata-_san_ now," Tak said grimly. "One more strike, and the Blue Wave are finished!"

"As Dad would say, 'It ain't over till it's over!'" Ariana scowled. "All he needs is one good pitch..."

Just then, the catcher lifted his glove, nodding to the pitcher with conviction.

"Uh-oh...," Tic said cautiously, "here it comes!"

"What?" Kirin asked. "Here 'what' comes?"

The tall Tengu groaned. "The Tigers' pitcher has a phenomenal fastball! This guy always uses it to force out a clinch-strike," Tic said slowly. "There's no way that Hirata-_san_ could be ready for it!"

The pitcher posed on the mound like a samurai before battle, waiting for a heartbeat before he drew up, pulled back and let the ball fly with a pitch that was almost too fast, too unbelievable to witness. It whipped through the air, leaving a blur that almost resembled a single, white line. The crowd held their breath as Hirata's bat connected, hitting the speeding ball right in the sweetest spot.

"Jalapeña!" Ariana gasped.

"_Shimata__!_" Kirin breathed. 

All five gargoyles watched breathlessly as the high-flying ball soared high over right field and the batter started to take his run around the bases. They joined in the chant that was rising from the crowd – "**_HI-RA-TA! HI-RA-TA!"_** The runners began to round the bases and to head for home. The roar of the crowd grew louder and louder as each player crossed the plate.

_"Ichi!__ Ni! SAN! __Ho-muran, Hirata!"_Ariana and the Three crowed along with the humans below. Forgetting herself for a moment, Ariana gave a happy skip-jump and promptly tripped back into Kirin, banging the top of her head into his chin. "Ow!"

"Really, Ari-_chan_!" Kirin complained as he pushed her away. "Must you give me a hangover and a concussion in the same night?" His tone was harsh but his touch was gentle.

"Don't you want a little something to remember me by?" she quipped, winking at him over her shoulder. 

"I shall name my ulcer after you," Kirin retorted with a huff, "because being with you will surely give me one!" 

"Poor sensei!" Tic commented jovially. "Mozu will have to make you another tonic when we get back home."

"The humans are clearing out," Tak commented from his perch on the roof's edge. "Shall we go?"

While the others were looking over the edge, Adrian felt the persistent buzz of her armband. "If you don't mind," she said, eyeing the public restrooms in the vacant section just below them, "I'd like to visit the ladies' room before I go."

"The ladies' what?"

"Go? Go where?"

"Why can't we go too?"

Ariana rolled her eyes. "Geez, guys," she said disgustedly, "do I have to spell it out? I'm a city girl; I like a bathroom with porcelain fixtures and actual plumbing." 

Toe cocked his head like a curious bird. "But –"

"Boys," Kirin sighed as he came to her rescue, "leave her alone and I'll explain." He waved a hand at her as if shooing her away. "Try not to be too long, Ari-_chan_."

"Thanks." Checking for stragglers, Ariana neatly tucked-and-rolled under the edge of the roof and sailed into the empty section. The public restrooms had just been cleaned by the fresh smell of disinfectant. She inhaled deeply and sighed; she hadn't been entirely acting when she made her excuses to Kirin and the guys. The Tengu facilities were fine but primitive after a life spent in Manhattan. After tending to all her necessary business, she turned on the water to cover her voice and tapped the comlink on her armband. "Okay, Graeme… I'm alone. Whatcha want?"

"It took me a while but I'm finally in," her brother's disembodied voice said. "I'm emailing the details to you but it looks to me like Wariguri is trying to salvage lost ore with those probes."

"How?"

"They're setting up a new kind of multi-spectrometer ground-piercing radar net. The tectonic plates in that region are like a loose deck of shuffled cards. The slightest geodesic shift could set it off so they're trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. I've downloaded the probe specs and I'll let you know once I've analyzed them."

"What kind of ore are they after?"

"Precious metals are at the top of their mineralogical survey. One of their clients is making components for the way station that's being set up between here and Mars."

"We went into Kobe and had a look at their offices downtown," Ariana said, frowning at her face in the mirror and taking a moment to fluff her bangs over her brow ridges. "We couldn't get in – they had a T-9 laser security grid on in there."

"A T-9?" Her brother raised his brow ridges. "That's interesting – I may ask Owen to check into it. A mining company shouldn't need a military-class security system like that."

"That's a good idea. There's nothing Owen likes better a little corporate espionage."

"Yeah, sneaky is what he does best." Graeme paused for a moment. "So are you all right, Ari? Everything okay?"

"Yes, yes… worrywart." Ariana smiled as she imagined her brother tapping his foot nervously as he sat at his computer hundreds of miles away. "It took a while but the Tengu have gotten used to me. I still freak the elders out but the others have been nice to me."

"Like that Kirin guy?"

"Please!" she snorted. "Kirin's old, for crying out loud!"

"So why was he hanging over your shoulder like that?"

"Tiny little viewscreen, duh!" She heard voices approaching. "I gotta go, bro. Talk to you later!"

"Bye!"

Ariana just had time to splash water on her face when Kirin came around the corner. He scowled at her. "Are you going to be all day?"

"Rude," she countered. "Fine manners you have, walking in here like that." Peering into the mirror as she blotted her face with a paper towel, she watched him watching her. "What? Don't you know it takes some of us a while to make ourselves pretty?"

"Stop making excuses," he said softly as he crossed his arms. "Mozu heard another person's voice in here."

"What?" She glared at his reflection. "You had me followed?"

"Never mind that," Kirin said dismissively. "Who were you talking to?"

Sighing, she tossed the paper towel in the trash and turned to face him, leaning back against the sink. "Graeme called."

Kirin cocked his head and his eyes glowed faintly. "But you don't have a phone on you unless—" He shot a hard look at her armband and figured it out. "You lied! You said that thing was--"

"No," she said, shaking her head, "I only told you what you needed to know."

"You convinced the council that thing was a medical device!"

"That part was true -- that was its original function. My brother and I did nearly die when we were born and these things saved us. Over time, the armbands were modified. I had to get it back when you guys took it because it set an alarm off on Graeme's armband." She smirked a little. "He was about to send the Marines after me when I got it back and gave him the all clear code."

"Then," he said warily, "you've been in contact with him all this time?"

"No, this was only the second time I've used the comlink," she answered. "You were there for the web conference." She watched as he huffed and furrowed his eyebrows together in thought. "Look, it's just Graeme."

Kirin flicked a glance at her. "He worries about you?"

"Hey, if he gets in a good hit while we're sparring, he's an emotional wreck for hours. It's just how Graeme is." Ariana crossed the room and put her hand on his arm. "Look, I know I wasn't entirely truthful. My armband is not a weapon and it's not going to hurt anybody but it's mine and I need it. Do you honestly think they would have given it back if they'd known otherwise?"

"Probably not," he admitted, sighing as he ran a hand over his face. "Gods, you complicate things. Twenty years of peace and quiet with the Tengu and in only a few days, you've turned my world upside down."

"Hey," she quipped cheerfully. "The week's young yet."

"Somehow I don't find that thought very comforting." Kirin turned and led the way of the restroom. "We should be getting back -- I sent the Three ahead. They'll be on the outskirts of the city by now."

Ariana followed Kirin out onto the upper deck seats of the ball park. The only activity now was the ground crew covering the infield. They had already switched off the lights in the stands but it made little difference to the two gargoyles. Kirin paused and was looking over the field. "It's been a long time since I've been to a ballgame," he mused. "I forgot how exciting it could be."

"See?" she teased. "It does you good to get out." She leaned up against the rail. "I suppose I'm in big trouble over the noodle shop, huh?"

"By all rights you should be," he growled half-heartedly, "but you were only following your instincts. Living with the Tengu has gotten me too used to hiding in shadows. There was a time when I wouldn't have run the other way." He shook his head. "I'm getting old."

"Nonsense," Ariana commented. "Age is just state of mind, Kirin-_san_. You need to get out the woods more often."

"Hmmph." Kirin cast a rueful look at her. "Still, the noodles were good."

"Hey, I worked hard for them," she joked back. "Shall we go?"

Kirin started to jump over the side but paused and reached under the seats to retrieve a souvenir doll with two clumps of wild brown hair that stuck out from under a tiny toy cap. "Here," he said gruffly. "You might as well have this."

Taking the little plush figure from him, Ariana began to laugh as she examined it. "What is it? I know it's the Blue Wave mascot but what kind of creature is it?"

"I have no idea," Kirin admitted. "They call it 'Neppy' -- it's supposed to be some kind of cartoon sea god like Neptune or Poseidon. I think it looks more like a deformed monkey with a bad haircut." He shrugged. "You can toss it away if you like. It makes no difference to me."

"No, it's hideous – I'll keep it, thanks!" She grinned and tucked it in her pocket. "It'll make a nice addition to my sports collection back home."

 The flight back to the Rokko mountain range seemed to take no time at all. They had talked pleasantly on a number of subjects from Ariana's life in New York to the Grand Miai to the kind of books they both liked. Kirin became highly animated on the subject; Ariana got the feeling that not many of the Tengu were interested in literature. Since reading was one of her favorite ways to wind down after a heavy workout or a tough night on patrol, she was perfectly happy to share his enthusiasm.

"—and you say that they turned Tolkien's entire trilogy into movies?" Kirin was saying as they approached Tengu Rock. "Astonishing!"

"Yeah, watching 'The Lord of the Rings' films back-to-back is one of our favorite things to do around winter solstice," Ariana commented. "It's better to see them one at a time though, a few nights apart and just let all the greatness soak in."

"It's that good?" he asked wistfully.

"Oh, yeeeeeeeeeah…." She looped up and over him in a lazy barrel roll. "Graeme was campaigning to have it added to the video room schedule. You should come back to Ishimura and see it."

"No," Kirin said firmly, "I'll never go back to Ishimura – too many bad memories." He frowned and looked away from her. The light that had been in his eyes dimmed and his whole body language went back to being guarded and self-contained.

Ariana chewed her lower lip pensively. "Then maybe you should make some new memories," she suggested. "You've been gone what, twenty years? Things change… people change." She swooped under so she could look Kirin in the eye. "You've changed since then, haven't you?"

Narrowing his eyes, he growled at her. "You are not O-tama and I am NOT having this discussion with you!"

"Touchy!" She merely shook her head. "Well, Mr. Grumpygoyle, there's only one thing to do."

"What?" he asked sourly.

She reached out and touched his nose with one finger. "Swoop tag… you're it!" With a peal of laughter, she dove into the gorge below Tengu Rock and shot low over the river. The walls of the mountain pass narrowed as it twisted through the ancient rock strata. Kirin's greater wingspan was at a disadvantage here; Ariana could use her full extension to catch the strong updrafts coming from the waterfalls and accelerated straight up like a rocket. 

"Wench!!" Kirin bellowed indignantly as he struggled upwards.

"Hurry up, slowpoke!" she taunted him from high above. "You're dragging your tail!"

Ariana might have been blindfolded every time she left the village, but her ears had been open. She recognized the sound of the river changing and followed it east. The mountains were rising higher and she could smell just the faintest whiff of food cooking. The sound of powerful wings stroking upwards alerted her and she neatly looped around to watch Kirin approaching. He had a determined look on his face and a boyish grin that belied any grumbling he might be doing; she could tell that he was enjoying himself tremendously. 

"It took you long enough," Ariana quipped as she lured him closer. "Poor Kirin-_san_… I do believe you're still a little under the weather. You want me to feel sorry for you." She pretended to pout and made kissing noises at him.

"I'll have you know I was playing this game while you were still in the shell, hatchling!" he growled. "Now come here! You know you cannot return to the village without your blindfold!"

"I don't think so," she said coyly. "You'll have to catch me first."

Dropping out of his arms before he had a chance to grab her, Ariana tucked her wings and plummeted in freefall towards the ground. She pulled out of her dive only a few feet from the ground and skimmed over the long grasses before shooting out back out over the deep gorge that the river had cut through the Rokko Mountains. Bright moonlight cast his shadow on the steep stone walls and Ariana took evasive action, pivoting on a wingtip and slinging around him.

"Ha!" she called out. "Saw you!"

"Two can play that game!" he retorted and executed his own tight turn. Together they wove an intricate pattern high in the Japanese sky, coming quite close to one another and spinning away at just the last second. It wasn't the first time that Ariana had been skydancing -- she and Graeme had done it for years -- but there was something exhilarating about it that hadn't ever been there before. She sailed in towards Kirin and he matched her move as they both drifted down into the gorge like a pair of falling autumn leaves. 

"Why, Kirin-_san_," she said coyly, "Who would have guessed a bookworm like you could be so graceful?"

Kirin smiled and it was becoming more natural every time. "You'd be surprised," he replied. "I wasn't always a sour old persimmon, Ari-_chan_. I was young once."

"Oh, that…" Ariana gave an embarrassed laugh. "You've grown on me since then."

"I'm glad," he answered in a low voice and held out his hand.

Ariana felt her toes curl. She started to reach out towards him with her heart in her throat.

"Swoop tag!"

Tic and Toe zipped by in a double blur, passing between her and Kirin. Ariana's arm was nearly jerked from her socket as Tak snatched her away with him. 

"Takakura!!" Kirin bellowed. "Release her!"

"What on earth do you think you're doing?" Ariana demanded as she struggled to free herself from his grip. She finally planted her foot in his chest and kicked him away. 

"Don't play the innocent with me!" Tak sneered. "We all saw you leading sensei on a merry chase, flipping your tail at him! You shouldn't waste your time with him, Ari-_chan_, not when my brothers and I would make a much better match for you."

"Whoa, hold on, wait a minute!" Ariana stammered. "Who said anything about that? Kirin and I were just skydancing!"

"Right," Tak ground out as he closed in on her, "You want to play that game – fine, I'll go along with it. I'll catch you and then you'll have to choose me!"

"In your dreams!" Ariana shot back and folded up her right wing to drop in a fast spiral like a maple seed. Halfway down, she spun away into a strong crosscurrent blowing across the pass and zipped back towards the village. Tic swept past her and blocked her way, forcing her to change course. Ariana started to go high to avoid him only to encounter Toe soaring above her like his avian namesake, the shrike.

"Guys, what are you doing?" she called out in exasperation.

"Just playing," Tak answered back. "We saw you with Master Kirin and thought we'd join in."

"That's right," Toe chimed in from above, "Tak said you wanted us to."

"See?" Tak called out as he came up from behind. "All my brothers and I want is our fair share of your attentions."

Irrationally, her vision burned bright red as her temper swept over her like a wildfire. For the first time in her life, males were actually interested in her and Ariana was not pleased about it at all. She backwinged and changed direction in mid-air. "Damn you, Tak," she muttered under her breath, "I don't know where you got your ideas about girls but you've got a lot to learn about me!"

"Oh, I'm certain you could show me—erk!" Ariana's hand connecting with his face sent him spinning away. 

"Who," she began hotly, "do you think you are, butting into my business like that? I certainly didn't ask you to – and I was having a good time until you bozos showed up!" She waved her arm at Tic and Toe. "And what do you mean, involving them just so you can get what you want?"

Tic eyed his brother suspiciously. "Tak, what is she talking about?" As they hovered, the winds began to drift them towards the Tengu village. 

"She's just mad that she's been found out," Tak sneered as he rubbed his cheek. "You all saw her – how she's been buttering up to Kirin. She's playing a game of hard-to-get with us, brothers."

"**_WHAT?_**" Ariana screeched at the top of her voice. "Are you delusional, Tak?"

 A fierce roar came out of the sky and anything Tak might have had to say in reply was lost as Kirin hit him broadsides and drove him down to the ground just outside the practice field. The other Tengu, adults and elders alike, dropped whatever tasks they were doing and came out to see what the commotion was. Tak tumbled to a stop in a woodpile under a stand of cedar, his impact showering him with leftover rain from the shower earlier in the evening.

"You," Kirin snarled softly, "haven't earned the right to touch her." His eyes were white hot orbs burning in the shadow of his face. The menacing growl that rose from his chest was so low and so deep that at first it was felt rather than heard. His fur-tipped tail twitched like a tiger's as he stalked towards his prey.

Ariana landed between them with her hands raised. "Kirin?" she said very carefully. "It's all right. No one is hurt. Tak has learned his lesson, all right?" She put her hand gently on his shoulder. He was trembling with anger. "Hey… it's okay." Turning his face towards her, she drew his attention away from the fallen Tengu on the ground. "See? He didn't hurt me – it's okay." 

Drawing a deep shuddering breath, Kirin closed his glowing eyes hard and when he looked up, they were back to his normal warm brown. He cast a guilty look in Tak's direction – the long-nosed Tengu was being tended to by O-tama and Toe. "Is he--?"

Ariana shook her head. "I gave him a hell of a shiner but he'll be fine." She put both hands on the sides of his face. "Are you going to be all right?"

He closed his eyes and pulled away from her. "No."

"Kirin…."

"Just leave me alone." He turned and disappeared into the trees.

"What is this all about?" Takamatsu demanded as he limped up, supported on Miza's arm. "Why are you fighting with Kirin, Takakura?"

"Ask her!" Tak said, pointing at Ariana. "This is all her fault!"

"Me? Are you nuts? You started it!"

Miza looked down her narrow beak at Toe sternly. "Well, Mozu?" she said. "You and Tancho have guilty faces as well. What is going on?"

Toe dipped his beak nervously. "It's just, well--" He cast an apologetic look at Ariana. "She spends all her time with sensei and we never really get to. Tak said we should take matters into our own hands."

"It's true," Tic sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "Don't get me wrong, I don't mind Master Kirin coming along – he spends too much time with his books as it is – but Ari-_chan_ is our age. We should be the ones getting to spend more time with her."

"Foolish hatchlings!" O-tama said, shaking her head. "That is no way to impress a female, ganging up on her!"

"Listen to me, all of you," Takamatsu said as he fixed a stern look at the three young males. "We asked Kirin to act as Ariana's chaperone. He is there for her safety, and judging by your behavior tonight, with good reason!"

"Chaperone?" Ariana blinked. "But--?" It did explain why Kirin had stopped being openly hostile to her. She chewed her lip anxiously.

"Lady Ariana," Takamatsu said in a more kindly tone, "we could not risk anything happening to you while you were our guest. It would be dishonorable to both you and your clan. Please accept my apologies for the rudeness of our young warriors."

"No, it is I who should apologize, Takamatsu-_sama_," Ariana responded with a slight bow. "I'm sorry that I've caused so much trouble."

"As you should be!" sniffed Doryo, but the elder was firmly shushed by his mate before he could get started on a tirade. They each took one of Takamatsu's arms and began to help the Tengu leader back into the village. The crowd began to break up as Goro escorted the Three to O-tama's hut. 

Miza put her hand on Ariana's shoulder. "Are you all right?" the beaked female asked.

"No," Ariana sighed. "I used to think it would be fun to have guys fight over me. It's not all that, is it?"

"The Three will get over it, Ari-_chan_," Miza said with gentle humor. "Young males will do foolish things, with or without us."

"Where did Kirin go?" Ariana asked, looking around. "He left awfully suddenly."

"Ah." Miza raised her brow ridges and feathered crest at the same time. "O-tama has gone after him. I should not worry, she will see to him."

In spite of Miza'a reassurances, Ariana felt the need to check up on Kirin. Since her backpack was still in the schoolroom, she had a perfectly good excuse for going there. paused with her foot poised over the porch step, Ariana heard voices in the schoolroom, Kirin's and – she concentrated – O-tama's. She frowned and crept softly around to the downwind side of the hut and crouched under the nearest window, driven by her own curiosity.

"—I can't do this any more, O-tama," Kirin was saying. "I know this is your doing!"

"No one is forcing you to do anything, Kirin-_san_," O-tama replied gently. "You agreed to this task, and it has not been totally unpleasant, _neh_?"

"I cannot believe I did that to Tak," Kirin huffed. "I am too old to have these feelings! She is too young for me!"

Ariana's eyes widened and she bit her lip. They were talking about her!

"Nonsense," O-tama commented. "You are a male in your prime, not a withered old elder. If anything, you are a moth to a flame."

"How so?"

"A moth is safe while it sits in the shadows," O-tama explained, "but a moth circling a flame, dancing in its radiance – that is when it is truly alive, when it is claiming that spark as its own."

"It is a dangerous dance," he observed. "It comes at too high a price. The moth may catch its wings on fire, especially if its wings have been singed before."

"Or it may become a phoenix and rise from the ashes."

They were silent and for several minutes, all that could be heard were the sounds of crickets and cicadas high up in the trees. Ariana was barely breathing. 

"I will give this to her," Kirin finally said. "She is infuriating, impulsive, generous to a fault," his voice dropped to a shaky hush, "but when I am with her, I am not alone."

"Then that, Kirin-_san_, is a good thing." O-tama's skirts rustled and the wooden floor creaked as she stood up. "Tak is waiting to speak with you. I daresay Takamatsu has warmed his ears by now."

"I suppose there's no point in putting it off," he sighed. "Perhaps you should take Ari-chan's bag – it might not be wise for me to do it."

"As you wish, Kirin-_san_." The floorboards creaked and moaned as the two gargoyles left the building.

Wrapping her arms around her knees, Ariana sank down in the aromatic cedar needles that were drifted against the wall of the hut. She didn't know what to think – her thoughts were spinning around in her head so much that she felt dizzy and disoriented. In her visits to other clans, she had gotten on well with males her age but they always treated her as a comrade, a fellow warrior. She'd watched in envy at the way Midori had a crowd of males wherever she went – she'd even been jealous of the way Graeme doted on Lucy, even when they were an ocean apart. 

"It's not fair," she whispered as she toyed idly with the silver ring she wore on her wing talons. 

"What's not fair, Ari-chan?"

Ariana's head shot up. O-tama was standing below her on the narrow path. "B-but," she stammered, "I didn't hear you!"

"I was born with a withered wing, young one," O-tama said simply. "I learned very early to move with stealth and guile." She cocked her head like an owl. "You look unhappy."

"I should be thrilled," Ariana said, rising to her feet and coming down the slope to the Tengu healer. "I've been waiting such a long time for guys to notice me and what happens? They all act like idiots and fight!"

O-tama chuckled. "It was a rude surprise to the Three as well. If this does not make the elders wake up, nothing will." She handed the backpack to Ariana and linked her arm with hers as they began to walk back to the village. 

"You knew I was there, didn't you?"

"I was sitting closer to the window," O-tama answered. "Kirin was too busy brooding to notice."

"Is he—" Ariana bit her lip. "Is he all right?"

"Kirin-san will be fine." Her steps grew slower. "I have been his healer for a long time, Ari-chan. You see," she came to a stop and looked at the younger female with hooded eyes, "a healer is not only responsible for healing the body. When the heart is troubled, a healer must be able to listen and make no judgments; only then can the soul be renewed."

"'What O-tama hears is for O-tama's ears.'" Ariana nodded. "But what does that have to do with Kirin?"

"He came to us gravely wounded, not a physical ailment, you understand, but a wounding of the heart. I can say no more than that." She began walking again. "It has taken a long time for him to heal but he's very close now." Smiling up at Ariana, she patted her arm with maternal affection. "It may not seem that you are helping but you are."

"Are you sure?" Ariana asked skeptically.

"Not really," O-tama replied, "but we will see, young one, we will see."

**_To be continued in Part IV of "Tengu"…._**


	4. Tengu: Part 4

**Tengu**

A TGS-based story

by C.S. Hayden

Characters from the "Gargoyles" show are the property of Disney and Buena Vista Television. All other characters are from The Gargoyles Saga fanfiction series and the story "Yama's Path" by Kimberly Towle. Scene from "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare.

**Part IV:**

"Hide me!" Ariana blurted out as she burst into the schoolroom. She had a split-second view of Kirin standing there, bared to the waist and wearing some kind of draped pants with a naked blade in his hands before she slid neatly under the cloth-covered table on the far side of the room.

The wooden floor thumped and creaked as Kirin slammed his foot down and continued his workout. Ariana could hear the controlled cadence of his breathing and the guttural exclamations as he finished each kata form. His sword hissed through the air like the swish of a fine silk dress.

"Kirin-_san_!" came a female voice. "Kirin-_san_, has Ariana come through here?"

"Not to my knowledge, Kiyo-_san_," he snorted, his feet continuing to beat out a pattern on the floorboards. "You would certainly know if she did – the troublesome thing leaves more chaos in her wake than a typhoon." He stopped moving. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, we were entertaining ourselves by making her up like a Tengu maiden." Kiyo giggled vapidly. "Bana finally found the varnish to set her hair but Ari-_chan_ seems to have gotten lost on her way back from the outhouse."

"Hmmph." Kirin took a deep breath and slammed his two-toed feet down into another stance. "Well, I have been practicing for the past hour and I have not seen her pass by."

"You will tell her that we're looking for her?"

"Of course." He continued on with his exercises for several minutes while Ariana lay still beneath the table, straining her ears for any sign that she might be discovered. She watched as Kirin's toes approached. "She's gone," he reported. "Come out from under there."

"No," she said, puffing her lower lip out in a pout in spite of the fact that he couldn't see her. 

"Why not?"

She whined petulantly. "I don't want anyone to see me like this."

"I've seen you covered in mud and worse," he pointed out reasonably. "How bad could it possibly be?" Before he finished speaking, Kirin had lifted up the edge of the table. His eyes widened for a moment. "Sweet Buddha, what did they do to you?"

Sulking unhappily, Ariana crawled out. "O-tama suggested spending some time with the other females might help cool things off," she explained. "How was I to know that they were going to tart me up like some kind of two-bit imitation geisha? I feel like I should be hanging around some street corner on the Ginza!" 

She stood up so Kirin could get the full effect. The Tengu females had urged her to try on Miza's best kimono, an orange and green outfit that clashed horribly with her own red skin. They had spent the better part of an hour teasing, tugging, and twisting her waist length hair into an elaborate hairdo and then proceeded to jab her scalp countless times as they inserted gaudy hair ornaments to further decorate it. Ariana didn't want to think what her face looked like with all the rice powder and kohl they put on it.

Kirin's eyes began to water and his lip twisted but he somehow managed to keep from laughing. "Offhand," he ventured carefully, "I'd say that this look is not you."

"They were going to VARNISH my hair!" she wailed indignantly.

"So Kiyo said." Coming closer, Kirin plucked an antique hair pin festooned with a garish silk butterfly from her hair. "I can see Bana's hand in this," he commented as he began to methodically rid her of her ornaments. "She had quite a head of hair when she was younger. She used to deck herself out like a festival float."

"Well, I wish she'd left mine alone!" She sighed and tried to help him but Kirin batted her hands away. 

"It's all right, Ari-_chan_," he said gently. "I'm no hairdresser but I can at least undo what was done to you. Come here and sit down." He kicked a cushion over with one foot and Ariana sank gratefully down on it. "I can't imagine what they were thinking."

"Me neither," Ariana groaned. "I was ugly enough to start with but this color is terrible on me and my scalp is pulled so tight that I can't even blink and I don't want to think what my face looks like with all this grease and powder on it."

Kirin said nothing but she could hear his low soft chuckle behind her. 

"I suppose it is kind of funny," she admitted. "I mean, my mother and Angela used to do the same thing when I was younger." She smiled in spite of herself. "I had the prettiest robin's egg blue kimono with pink and white cherry blossoms up the sleeves and around the hem. Mother would let me wear a strand of pearls in my hair or perhaps some flowers. She said anything more was overdone and tawdry."

"Lady Sata was right," he commented. "A flower needs nothing more than the dewdrops on its petals to enhance its beauty."

"That's very Zen. Is it a quote?"

"No, merely an observation." Finished with the ornaments, Kirin began to take out the black lacquered combs that were keeping her hair in place. She sighed in relief as he gently uncoiled her locks and laid them over her shoulders. "That's better," he said, running his fingers through it to check for any last pins. "Your hair doesn't need any elaborate embellishments, Ari-_chan_. It has its own beauty." 

"I don't suppose you have a comb?" she asked wistfully. 

"I've never had a use for one," he said as he got up and went around the screen in the corner. "It's impossible to comb my hair with these horns in the way."

"I can tell – you have tangles that I want to take a machete to."

Kirin came back around with a basin of water and a clean cloth. "Do me a favor and wash your face. You look…" he wrinkled his nose in concentration as he searched for a word, "…unnatural."

She gave him a baleful glare. "That's very tactful of you, thanks."

"Yes, it was." Kirin stepped around the table and went back to his practice area. Discreetly, Ariana watched as he began to busy himself with cleaning his sword. She hadn't noticed before but he had a matched set of four – tachi, katana, wakizashi, and tanto – in a black lacquered rack. While he was occupied, she slipped around the corner and shed Miza's kimono. Since she hadn't wanted to be trapped in that outfit, she'd kept on her shorts underneath and had kept her shirt tucked in one of the pockets. 

Not wanting to put her black shirt over the ghastly white powder on her face, Ariana crossed her wings modestly over her chest and went back out to wash. Kirin was still intent on his swords, or so she thought. In the middle of scrubbing her face with a bag of rice bran soap, she heard a faint strangled sound. She didn't dare open her eyes so she simply asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Are you insane?" Kirin hissed. "What if someone comes in? You're practically naked!"

"Hardly," Ariana retorted. "I only took off my shirt to put on Miza's kimono. If you weren't so busy having a fit, you'd see I've got a bra and shorts on. All the naughty bits are covered, you big prude." She rinsed her face with several handfuls of water and patted it dry with the cloth, only to open her eyes to find Kirin staring at her from across the room.

He huffed indignantly and looked away. "What kind of female wears red undergarments? It is no wonder that the Three were intrigued – it looked like you were wearing nothing underneath when you had on Mozu's tunic."

"I'm a red gargoyle, duh." Ariana rolled her eyes at him. "As for the guys, I'm not responsible for what THEY think, although…" She cocked her head pertly. "…it is interesting that you took a peek as well."

Kirin growled and curled his lip at her.

"So, did I get all of it?" she asked, lifting her chin and turning her head this way and that. "I don't have a mirror to check."

Glancing at her, he glowered and rose to his feet, padding across the room to plop down besides her. He scowled as he took the cloth from her and gently ran it around the curve of her jaw. "Why did you have your clothes on under the kimono? Isn't that uncomfortable?"

"Hey, the way they were talking, I didn't think I'd get them back." She smirked. "Apparently, Doryo finds my clothes too 'provocative' and they give the Three the wrong impression. Bana kept hinting that it would be more seemly if I dressed more like a Tengu maiden."

"Those shorts reveal an indecent amount of leg," Kirin snorted. "I can see her point."

"Fashion advice from a guy wearing M.C. Hammer pants?" she pointed out, gesturing at the baggy garment he had on. "I think not." Even though she was making a joke at his expense, Ariana couldn't help admiring the firm muscular tone of his upper body. His arms were knotted and sinewy from years of wielding the heavy tachi and practicing martial arts. She knew that he was at least a generation older or more but except for some faint scarring from sword fighting, there were few signs of aging. 

Sitting back on his haunches, Kirin crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. "I do not know this 'Hammer' person but this is called a 'dhoti.' It's a type of wrapped loincloth that Indian sailors brought to Osaka and it is very popular with fishermen. I like the ease of movement." His fur-tipped tail twitched irritably.

"And on you, it looks cute," she purred, leaning forward in full flirt mode. She was gratified to see the inside of his ears turn a rosy pink color.

He huffed indignantly and tossed the towel on the table. "You're clean. Hurry and dress." Stalking behind the screen, he began to toss things around and mutter angrily to himself. 

Ariana snickered as she pulled her shirt over her head and threaded her wings through the holes in the back. "Awwww," she teased, "I think you're embarrassed."

"Nonsense," Kirin said as he came back out, tucking his belt in around his usual grey tunic. He held out her palmtop. "You might as well put this in your pocket. It might be useful."

Ariana lifted a brow ridge at him as she took it. "Isn't this against the rules?"

"Since you seem to like getting in trouble, you might as well do it thoroughly." He crossed his arms and looked away as he said it, but he looked back as she began to giggle. "What?"

"Nothing," she answered with a wry grin, "but my brother's been saying that to me for as long as I can remember."

The chatter of excited voices interrupted them. Kirin pulled a sliding panel aside and ushered her outside. "I think the ladies have decided to backtrack on your trail," he commented. "Perhaps this would be a good time to check on Wariguri's warehouse office, _neh_?"

"Definitely!" Ariana bolted and headed for the bluffs. She paused at the edge, waiting for Kirin to catch up, and grabbed his hand as they both launched into the air.

"What's this?" Kirin asked, holding up their hands. "You're not blindfolded, you know."

"I know," she said with a carefree shrug, "but I got used to it."

"Ah." He huffed half-heartedly but he tightened his fingers gently. "It is just as well," he said finally to fill the awkward gap in the conversation. "It is usually foggy down in the warehouse district – their vicinity to the docks, no doubt."

Ariana bit back a knowing smirk. She had overheard enough the night before to know that Kirin was only making excuses. "Fog can be tricky to fly in," she commented. "Are you sure you know the way?"

"I often fly over the docks when I go up the coast to go fishing," Kirin answered back. "It's always useful to see what fish are running."

"Running?" Ariana asked, releasing his hand so she could swoop down below to look up at him with her best wide-eyed, empty-headed expression. "Shouldn't they be swimming instead?"

Looking down his ridged nose at her, Kirin stared at her for few seconds before slowly smiling. "Really, Ari-_chan_," he chided her gently; "I know you're smarter than that. Making those insipid anime eyes and playing the empty-headed ingénue does not impress me." 

"Hey, it always works for Sailor Moon."

Kirin groaned. "That's one thing that I haven't missed living with the Tengu," he commented. "Almost all the young females that I was teaching at Ishimura were addicted to that wretched program." He raised his eyebrows at her amused expression. "Oh, no… not you too--?"

"Uh-huh." She grinned impishly. "I've been a card-carrying member of the Eternal Sailor Senshi Scouts since the nineties. I even have my own skimpy little Super Sailor fuku." Giggling, she looped over him. "Now there's an outfit would give Doryo fits!"

Huffing indignantly, Kirin gave her a long, speculative look but said nothing as they crested the mountains and began the long glide down to Kobe. By the way that he kept glancing at her and fighting the urge to smirk, she could tell he was trying to visualize her in that outfit. Finally, he blurted out, "You really have one of those idiotic sailor suits?"

"Yes," Ariana drawled out, "with a tiny blue skirt and a big red bow for my hair."  She watched his furry eyebrows go up and down and then added, "If you don't believe me, Graeme probably has pictures."

"Your brother," he asked incredulously, "has PICTURES?"

"Of course," she teased, "who do you think I got to dress up as Tuxedo Mask?"

Shaking his head, Kirin canted west-southwest instead of going into town and headed for the ocean. He had been right about the fog; it was so thick that only the tang of salt in the air told Ariana where they were going. They dropped beneath the cloud cover just over the piers. Huge cargo ships, tugboats, and fishing vessels jockeyed for position at the centuries old seaport. Passing a red Eiffel-esque tower that looked like it was spun out of sugar instead of steel, Kirin turned back inland, but only for a few blocks. 

"Where are we going?" Ariana called as she followed him.

"I found the address for this yesterday," Kirin answered back. "Wariguri has a contract with a research and development lab out here. It turned up in some financial documents."

"Really? What made you want to check it out?"

"It was that motorcycle that you wrecked," he said, flashing a rare grin. "They had a pair of Kawasaki ninja bikes listed amongst their company vehicles when they submitted a chit to be reimbursed for fuel."

"Sometimes it's all in the details." Ariana grinned back. "Good catch!"

"Here," Kirin said pulling up short between two buildings, "they've rented the northwest corner of this warehouse across the street." They soared up to the rooftops and found a good spying post in a thicket of antennas and air vents. 

"Yeah, I see the bike that was chasing me from here."  Ariana said, pointing at the sleek motorcycle parked in the open double-wide doorway. "They look busy – what are they loading in the back of that SUV?" 

"Some metal cases," Kirin observed, "camping equipment, and supplies." He narrowed his eyes. "Should we try to get closer, do you think?"

"I don't know," she answered back. "Big guys like you aren't known for being sneaky."

"True, but I haven't lived among the Tengu for twenty years without learning a few of their tricks." He stood up, lightly resting his fingertips on her shoulders. "There's a light on in one of the upper floors. It could be an office."

"Let's do a fly-by and check it out." 

Putting action to words, Ariana slipped neatly over the side and drifted across the street like a ghost. The people loading the vehicle below never looked up but she got a good look at them. There were four of them, three Japanese men and one Caucasian who seemed comfortable with his associates, speaking Japanese with only a slight accent. She recognized one of the men as the one whose motorcycle she had stolen; he was wearing the red jacket that had been draped over the bike. Circling the building, she took a good look at the lit window that Kirin had spotted. The light was coming from a high density computer monitor that tinted everything in the room a bright teal. 

"That's interesting," Ariana commented and looped around for a second look to check for security systems. There didn't appear to be any obvious monitoring devices so she hovered in close and latched on to the brickwork with her talons. 

Kirin landed on the roof just above her and watched as she slipped the window locks. "Be careful," he hissed. "That's too small for me to get through!"

"Keep an eye on those guys," Ariana whispered back. "I'm just going to check things out." 

Slipping into the room, Ariana froze at the sound of voices below. They didn't seem to be coming upstairs so she focused her attention on the computer. "Finally," she breathed triumphantly, "a browser with an English language function!" She leaned and squinted at the screen. There was some kind of geophysical map up with an overlay of multi-colored squiggly lines. In the corner of the map, there was an icon that looked like a block of granite with a crack in it. A hammer and chisel were crossed over it and two words were printed beneath it in tiny letters.

"Ishikiri Geotech," Ariana read slowly. She chewed her lip for a moment and then took out her computer. "Lessee," she wondered out loud, "I've seen Graeme do this before – ah, here!" One of the panels on the back of the palmtop opened and a digital uplink cable was inside. She found the appropriate port on the office computer and hooked her palmtop up to it. 

Chewing her lip, Ariana went through the menu to find one of Graeme's personal programs. "Ah, there you are! L&P -- loot and pillage." She couldn't help smirking – this particular program of her brother's caused Thailog no end of trouble over the past three years when the cloned gargoyle had been trying to take over Xanatos' business empire through the New York criminal underground. All it took was inputting a few specific keywords and the modified search protocols would scour the hard drive for all pertinent files. 

"Okay… Wariguri, Rokko mountains, silver, mining, probes, testing, and…" She paused and pursed her lips thoughtfully. "What the heck, gargoyles and tengu. Search parameters entered and –" she clicked the enter button, "—working."

While the download was going on, Ariana crept to the door and cracked it open. There wasn't a lot to see – a long narrow workshop area below with a long line of glass-enclosed offices above. There was more here than just the workstation that she was raiding. Rows of computer towers were visible through the windows along the upper floor. The bottom of the warehouse appeared to be taken up with manufacturing. There were some office cubes  with computers but mostly it was work stations with various machines. She could see a table with some of the probes that they'd found near Tengu Rock. There was a plastic crate on the floor next to them – they appeared to be packing them up for some reason.

A harsh metallic creak warned her of someone coming up the stairs. Quickly, Ariana closed the door and went to retrieve her palmtop. The download wasn't complete but she didn't dare risk discovery. She chose another of Graeme's special programs and activated it. The approaching footsteps changed to a rough scuffing on the cheap linoleum. 

"C'mon, c'mon!" she chanted between clenched teeth. The second that the tiny program window flashed 'Done,' Ariana jerked the uplink cable from the hard drive and shot out of the office window, pausing just long enough to shut it behind her.

"Are you all right?" Kirin hissed. "I saw them all head inside!"

"Yeah, but let's go find someplace with some light, okay?" Ariana skimmed over a couple of rooftops before she found a spot she liked and that still had a view of the warehouse. "I hacked into their hard drive. Let's see what I got."

"You did what?" Kirin gaped at her, his barbels swinging wildly. "But how? You weren't in there that long!"

Ariana grinned and held up the palmtop. "Hey, this is one of Graeme's computers. He always puts a few of his special tools on the menu." She pointed to the email program that showed that it was transmitting. "His loot-and-pillage program is a highly evasive search engine that collects and transfers files. We use it a lot in Manhattan when we're fighting crime."

"Won't they know that you've been in their computer?"

"That's why I downloaded 'scuttle' into their system. It follows the L&S program and tidies up after it." She smirked. "It's a helpful little worm virus."

"Your brother has too much time on his hands," Kirin commented dryly. "He needs a female."

"His girlfriend's in London actually," Ariana commented absently as she scanned the listings on the L&S retrieval log. "Once Lucy gets here, I don't expect to see her or Graeme for the rest of the visit."

"Ah." He settled in next to her. "No doubt you will be too busy to miss him, Ari-_chan_. Your absence has surely driven the young males in Ishimura mad by now."

"I doubt any of them know that I'm gone," she said with a shrug. "Guys aren't interested in me, never have been."

"Why not?"

"Dude, I have a face like a boot," she answered sarcastically. "What guy would want me?"

"Ari-_chan_," he said lightly, "I have the ears of a cow, the horns of a deer, the mane of a lion, the feet of a goat and the lips of a fish. If anything, I am an expert on being unattractive." He deftly turned her face to look him in the eyes. "Compared to me, you are beauty beyond compare."

"Flatterer." Ariana ducked her head away but she couldn't help smiling. "About half of these entries are in Japanese -- do you want to look them over?" she asked as she handed over the palmtop. "The files should be already copied to Graeme's server so he'll be able to look over them for the technical stuff."

"Hmm," he said as he chewed thoughtfully on one of his barbels, "this is an interesting mix of stuff. There are some tech reports, inventory, even some emails in here. How does this retrieval program work?"

"You just type in whatever keywords you want and it culls out those items from the hard drive." Ariana shrugged. "Don't ask me how it works – Graeme came up with it."

"It's in an itemized list," Kirin mused as he scrolled down. "You asked about gargoyles and tengu?"

"Call it a whim." She leaned against his arm. "Something didn't come up, did it?"

"Surprisingly enough, yes." He tapped a line and a separate window popped up. "There's some talk of a place called Gargoyle World." Squinting at the tiny lines of type, he growled. "This is near Ishimura?"

"Yeah, but Goliath and Elisa helped Kai and the rest of the Ishimurans escape from there. The guy that built it, I forget his name, went bankrupt and left the country. We had some dealings with him in Manhattan."

"This email is signed 'Taro.' We taught bushido to a Taro family for generations." 

Ariana snapped her fingers. "Yeah, that's the one. He got involved with the American branch of the Yakuza." She held up her right hand and wiggled it. "He must have messed up somehow because the last time I saw him, he was missing a finger." 

"The Yakuza are most unforgiving," Kirin commented. 

"Hopefully, he learned from it," she answered back. "What's his email about?"

"Apparently, he's one of the principal stockholders at Wariguri. Someone questioned his business sense after the debacle of Gargoyle World and he responds that it gave him certain insight into dealing with us." He frowned and unconsciously, Ariana frowned with him. "Does that mean that the Tengu have been discovered, do you think?"

"Copy that and email that directly to Graeme," she suggested. "His addy is greenbeak@xanatech.com. He'll want to bring that to Owen's attention."

"Owen?"

"He works for Xanatos – his right hand man, you might say. If Wariguri is using Xanatech technology and Taro is involved in Wariguri, that means there's something else going on. Owen's going to want to know about anything that might implicate Xanatos in something shady." She smirked. "Nobody crosses Xanatos while Owen's around."

"Ah." Kirin moved the stylus over the screen and completed the task quickly. 

Amused at how fast the Ishimuran teacher had picked up on using the computer, Ariana watched as he began to scan through the files. His eyes were lit with an avid enthusiasm that she'd often seen in Graeme when he would return from his university classes, excited about some new thing or another. She tried to follow along but the most of the files that Kirin was examining were written in Japanese and all that did was make her head swim.

Yawning, Ariana closed her eyes for a moment. She'd been on her share of stakeouts with Elisa and other members of her clan but at least in Manhattan, there was an underlying current of danger involved. She gave a little sigh and found something comfortable to lean against. 

* * * * *

"Ariana," Kirin said in a quiet yet urgent voice, "Ari-_chan_, we need to go. Our quarry is moving." 

"Hmmph?" She blinked groggily and rubbed the side of her face where it had gotten all sweaty. "What happened?"

Kirin shrugged. "I watched. You slept." He slowly stood, his eyes focused on the street below. "They're getting in the truck. I think they may be headed back up into the mountains." He spread his wings and water dripped off their leathery surface.

"You're all wet," Ariana observed, making a face. 

"It rained." He paced along the edge of the building. "They're on the move – come!"

Flipping her wings out, Ariana prepared to follow but then she noticed an odd thing – she was dry. She ran a hand over her hair and down her clothing. While Kirin was thoroughly soaked on wings and back, she hadn't been rained on at all. She looked back at the rooftop where they'd been sitting and began to smile. There was a dry spot roughly the same size as Kirin's outspread wings. 

"Wow," she said softly to herself. It was such a sweet and unexpected gesture that she felt an irrational urge to cry.

Kirin swooped up the side of the building and hovered overhead. "Are you going to daydream all night?" he demanded harshly. He glanced briefly at the pavement, then at her and scowled. "They're nearly to the end of the street!"

"All right, all right!" she answered back, not buying his tough guy act for a minute. "Don't get your _fundoshi_ in a bunch!"

* * * * *

They caught up to the SUV easily and soared up to an easy surveillance altitude over the city. Ariana couldn't help glancing at Kirin anxiously. He was acting grumpy and aloof again, carefully keeping his distance. It was almost as if he was a little afraid of her, and Ariana had to admit that she was feeling a little unsure about him as well. He was probably only being protective, she told herself reasonably; Takamatsu himself said Kirin was her chaperone. Japanese gargoyles were all about duty and coming from Ishimura, Kirin had been drilled in bushido since he'd been hatched. It was foolish to think that he had any kind of romantic feelings for her, not with his age and her face. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts of any more girlish fantasies, and focused on the matter at hand.

"So, did you find out anything else in the files?" she called out as they ducked some power lines. 

"Taro's name came up in a few more documents," Kirin replied. "He seems to have done well in America because he's made investments in a number of Japanese technology-based companies."

"Really?" Ariana clicked her tongue against the arched roof of her beak. "Legitimate businesses?"

"They seem to be but I have been out of touch for a long time," Kirin admitted. "I went ahead and sent them ahead to your brother."

"What about these guys we're following?"

"I found a memo to Wariguri," Kirin said slowly. "They have to move up their schedule due to some conflict with the local conservation group. I believe these people are going to do something with those probes we found near the temple." He frowned. "Even though this 'ground-piercing radar' is alleged to be noninvasive, I find their choice of test site and its closeness to our territory unsettling. Even their business name makes me nervous."

"Ishikiri Geotech?"

"The word _ishikiri_ means stone-cutter, Ari-chan," he answered solemnly. "It's a most inhospitable word when one is a gargoyle."

"No kidding," she agreed. "Remind me to tell you about all the trouble we had with the Quarrymen back in New York." She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, there was a hammer on the Ishikiri logo. That was part of the Quarrymen logo."

"It is a common tool – perhaps it is merely a coincidence."

"There was a Caucasian down there at the warehouse. Did he get in the SUV with the others?"

Kirin glanced down at the vehicle below them.  "Yes, I believe so."

Instinctively, Ariana reached over and tapped the time tracker strapped on her left arm, activating the communicator function. "C'mon, Graeme," she grumbled as she enter the response sequence.

"What's wrong?" Kirin asked curiously.

"Something is making the hair on the back of my neck stand up," she replied absently. "That's always a bad sign."

"Ah." He chuckled. "I was unaware that there was such a thing as intuitive hair."

"Wiseass."

Graeme's voice crackled to life. "Ari, what did you send me?" he demanded over her comlink. "The LGX-1000 was not designed to transfer such huge files. It's still downloading over here!"

"Kirin and I raided the offices of a place called Ishikiri Geotech. That means 'stone-cutter' in Japanese."

"Like in—?"

"Quarrymen, yeah."

"Damn, I thought we were clear of those guys."

"Seems not," Ariana said, shifting her wings to stay on course. "Remember that guy Taro? He took over the crime syndicate in Little Tokyo and teamed up with Thailog for a while."

"The guy that Yama went after?"

"Yeah, well, he turned up here. He's gone corporate."

"Reeeeeeeeeally?" Graeme drawled out. "Hmm."

"What are the odds of the Quarrymen starting back up again?" 

"I do not understand," Kirin spoke up, since he had been following their conversation. "Why are these 'Quarrymen' of such concern?"

"When we first came to New York," Graeme began, "it was right after the Manhattan clan was forced to go public. Gargoyle hysteria was all over the media."

Ariana nodded. "Most people shrugged it off but this extremist group, the Quarrymen, started up. They had financial backing and their leader, Jon Canmore, came from a long line of gargoyle hunters. Their weapon of choice was an electrified hammer."

"Stung like bloody hell," Graeme chimed in.

"During the daytime, they'd go around smashing statues, anything frozen in stone that might be one of us. At night, they'd hunt us with high-tech weapons, laser-sighted rocket launchers, the works."

Kirin reached up and began to slowly rub the back of his neck. "Your intuitive hair is catching," he commented. "I begin to see your point."

Smiling back at him, Ariana continued, "Anyway, we helped Aunt Elisa and the NYPD bring them down but ex-Quarrymen have a bad habit of popping back up."

"Yeah, Lucy's clan had a few run-ins with them in England," Graeme said seriously. "Look, I'll do some checking around on this Taro guy. There was some bad blood between him and Yama years ago – Kai might know something. Owen's been in contact and he's got his troubleshooter from Xanatech Japan already checking into Wariguri. You'll remember him – Sohma Ichiro, tall thin guy with hair always in his eyes?"

"Oh, yeah." Ariana laughed. "Very bishie."

Kirin raised his furry eyebrows expressively but said nothing.

"You watch your back, Ari," Graeme said, his voice fading as they moved into the mountains.  "I'll message you later."

"All right." She reset her time tracker and concentrated on tracking the SUV as it disappeared into tree-covered stretch of highway.

"'Bishie?'"  Kirin asked wryly. "What is that?"

"It's just a figure of speech – it's the way the Ishimura girls rate guys." Ariana caught the curious look he was giving her. "Tak is majorly bishie, not that I'd ever want him to know. His head's swelled enough as it is."

"Ah." He frowned slightly. 

"You, on the other hand, are buff." Ariana bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the self-conscious little smile on Kirin's face. "I like you that way."

"Really?" His voice was hesitant.

"Oh, yeah… a tall, thin, androgynous version of you?" Ariana chuckled. "That would scare the crap out of me." 

Kirin began to laugh and her joke broke the tension between them. They were able to get back to the business of tailing the survey crew again. The white SUV followed the winding asphalt road that skirted the foothills and was clearly headed for the campgrounds below Dairyuji Temple. As they hovered above the treetops, they watched as the four men drove up to an RV already there and go inside. Ariana frowned as she noted the cluster of antennas and the small satellite dish on the roof of the recreational vehicle.

"We have company," Kirin announced, pointing to the east.

Tic, Tak and Toe flew in low, skirting the edge of the forest. The tallest young male waved and called out, "We've been wondering where you two got off to!"

"Shhh!" Ariana said, putting her finger to her lips. "They'll hear you!"

"Come, all of you," Kirin said decisively and led them up to a rocky outcropping halfway up the mountain from the campground. They could still see the RV but far enough away so they could talk normally. "Ariana and I have tracked some people from Kobe to here. We think they may be planning to do something with those probes we found the other night."

Tic nodded. "Goro and I spotted a couple of men prowling around below Tengu Rock when we went out to collect clay earlier. The elders have called a meeting so we decided to come back for a look."

"Talk, talk, talk," Tak snorted derisively. "That's all they ever do." He cast a resentful look at Ariana and looked away, folding his arms over his chest. He had apologized to her for his behavior the night before but with a poor grace. It was clear to Ariana that Takakura was used to getting his own way.

"How's the eye?" Ariana asked, cocking a brow ridge at Tak.

He ran a hand through his dark hair and shrugged. "It's fine. I suppose I should be thankful you didn't break my nose."

Tic laughed. "Kami knows it's a much bigger target!" Toe snickered.

"Ha, ha," Tak shot back at his rookery brothers. "Sensei was right about you, Ari-_chan_. You do hit hard for a girl."

"I hit hard for anybody," she corrected him. "So, no hard feelings?"

"I'll get over it," Tak replied. "If anything, it was worth it if just to hear Bana giving Doryo and the other elders a piece of her mind."

"Oh?" She winced. "I kind of ditched her and the other females earlier. Are they very mad?"

"Miza was more worried about her good kimono," Toe spoke up unexpectedly, "but she found it on sensei's garment stand. O-tama calmed the others down. They really wanted to show off their handiwork."

"I'm sure they meant well," Ariana said with wryly, "but I'm just not comfortable being someone else's dress-up doll."

"Bana was certainly disappointed," Tic commented with a chuckle, "and when Bana's unhappy, she lets everyone know it. She was telling the elders that there HAS to be a better selection of girls in Ishimura."

"'Ari-_chan_ is a lovely girl,'" Toe said, mimicking Bana's unctuous tones uncannily, "but she is too headstrong! An Ishimuran girl would be more cooperative!'" The bridge of his nose turned bright pink and he ducked his head shyly.

"Oh, shards!" Ariana moaned and hung her head, resting it on her folded arms which were on top of her knees as she sat next to Kirin. "I'm just screwing up right and left tonight."

Kirin patted her shoulder. "Do not worry," he said gently. "The elders have been complacent far too long. Takamatsu and O-tama will use your disruptive presence to their advantage."

She glared at him. "There you go again – complementing and insulting me at the same time."

He bowed slightly. "It's a talent."

"Wiseass." She attempted to glare back at Kirin but she couldn't help smiling and neither could he.

Clearing his throat, Tak asked, "So why'd you two go off alone this evening?" He gave them a sly smile. "The females were speculating about why there were clothes all over the schoolroom."

Kirin growled at his insinuation but Ariana merely rolled her eyes. "When we didn't find anything at the head offices, Kirin discovered that Wariguri contracted some other guys to do their dirty work. That motorcycle that chased me the other night was at their warehouse near the Kobe docks."

"So these are the guys that did that?" Tic whistled. "What do you suppose they're planning to do tonight?"

"At some point, they're going to do some testing," Kirin said thoughtfully. "Mozu, go down there and have a listen, will you?" The bird-headed Tengu nodded and glided off.

"Will he be all right?" Ariana asked anxiously. 

"Don't worry about Mozu," Tic assured her. "He's quiet like O-tama. She can sneak up on a mouse."

"At least Featherhead doesn't trip up over his own feet like you do," Tak commented. "When are you going to grow into those paddles?"

"When are you going to grow a brain?"

While the two Tengu boys squabbled, Ariana focused her attention on the brown speck that was spiraling down to the campground. Toe seemed to know what he was doing; if she hadn't kept her eyes on him, she wouldn't have been able to spot him at all. His dark brown coloring melted into the shadows around the RV. She squinted to keep track of him but it only made her vision blur more. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she closed her eyes for a moment.

* * * * *

"Ari-_chan_?" A gentle shake roused her and Ariana opened her eyes to find herself leaning against Kirin's chest. He and the Three were all looking at her curiously. Toe had returned and was standing just beyond Tak.

"Oh, damn… I did it again," she muttered. Their faces blurred for a moment and she closed her eyes.

"Yes," Kirin said anxiously, "you fell asleep again. Is this normal, Ari-_chan_?"

There was a brief scraping of talons on stone and then the touch of cool fingers on her face. "Her pulse is erratic and her skin is very clammy," Toe murmured, "This is not good." His shyness disappeared as his healer training took over. "She was unconscious before?"

"We were watching them load the car at the warehouse. Very boring, I nearly nodded off myself."

"Sleeping together all ready, sensei? Oooooo…"

"Shut up, Tak," both Tic and Toe snapped.

Forcing her eyes open, Ariana reached over and checked her armband. She switched on its medical function and winced as it took a blood sample. "Somebody look at the display for me," she murmured, almost too tired to speak. "If there's something wrong with me, it'll come up in bright yellow."

Kirin shifted her around in his arms. It was then that she realized that she'd somehow wound up in his lap. If she wasn't so tired, she'd be embarrassed. "There's a number in yellow," he reported anxiously. "72 mg/dL – what does it mean?"

"My blood sugar's low, that's all. I haven't had anything to eat tonight," she answered, looking up at him. The worried expression on his face was almost adorable. "Well, you try being cinched up with a tight obi and see if you feel like eating! That reading's fine for humans but gargoyles have higher levels of blood glucose." She smirked but only the corner of her mouth turned up. "That's why I carry junk food around with me. Graeme and I both have always had a problem with it."

Tic dug around in his belt pouch. "Here," he said handing Toe a paper-wrapped bundle. "I brought some rice balls with me. Miza had some _umeboshi_ and rice leftover from dinner so I made some for a snack."

"Eat this, Ari-_chan_," Toe said gently, wrapping the triangular shaped treat from the paper. "The pickled plum in it will restore your energy." Her hand shook so he held it for her as she took the first bites.

"Will she be all right?" Kirin asked over her head.

"Yes," Toe answered, "but she should really have some protein. The rice ball won't last her very long."

"All right." Kirin turned his head, looking out towards the campground. "You said that they're settling in for the night?"

"Yes," Toe replied. "Two of them said something about taking a nap before the test, whatever that is, and the others were fooling with some equipment."

"When did this happen?" Ariana asked as she slid out of Kirin's lap and sat up. The carbohydrates and sugar from the rice ball had taken effect quickly to make her feel much more awake. 

"Mozu came back and told us," Tak commented wryly, "but that's when you swayed a bit and then toppled over into Kirin-_san_'s lap like a falling tree." He gestured with his hands. "ssssshhaa-BOOM!"

Ariana winced at Kirin. "Sorry."

"Don't make a habit of it," he told her sternly. Glancing back at the campground, he seemed to come to a decision. "You three stay here and keep an eye on things. Ariana and I will be back shortly." He stood and helped her to her feet. 

"Where are you two going?" Tak asked.

"To the river," Kirin replied, "to catch a fish." He glared at her. "What a bothersome wench you are, Ari-_chan_."

Tic snorted. "Don't let him fool you," he called as they turned to leave. "Sensei loves an excuse to fish."

* * * * *

Truer words were never spoken. Within minutes of landing at the river, Kirin had deftly scooped out four glistening brown trout by the age-old method of reaching under the water and tickling them into his grip. Ariana had watched Brianna, Griff's mate, use a similar technique when they had been visiting the London clan but she herself had never quite managed it. Instead, she built a small fire while he fished and found a flat rock to cook the fish on. Ariana didn't know if Kirin planned on eating it raw but trout was not her idea of a sushi fish.

"That was well thought of," Kirin commented as they finished up the fish cooked on the hot rock. "I thought you were a city girl."

"Oh, I've done my share of roughing it," she replied airily. "It's not so bad, as long as you can get a hot bath every now and then." She sniffed her fingers critically. "I wonder if there's some mint growing around here. I smell fishy."

Kirin tossed the last of his fish bones into the bushes. "I don't know about mint," he said, rubbing his own hands together, "but if a bath is what you want, the hot springs are not far from here."

"I don't know," Ariana said, chewing on her lip. "We are on a stake out, after all. The guys are expecting us back." It was a tempting thought however; she still wasn't feeling quite herself and a good soak would put her right in no time.

"The Three are perfectly capable of watching a vehicle of sleeping humans," Kirin commented. "Do you wish to smell like trout all night?" 

"Well….," she drawled ruefully, "I suppose not."

Standing up, Kirin padded over to the water's edge and picked up a double handful of wet sand. He dropped it over the glowing embers of their fire, smothering it as wisps of steam escaped.

Ariana poked it with a stick, stirring the coals until she was sure it was out. It was a merely a delaying tactic. On one hand, she had a bad feeling about the people from Ishikiri; on the other, there was a certain naughty thrill in Kirin's suggestion. As a _miko_, Midori was playing it safe but she had plenty of stories about her rookery sisters' amorous adventures. It made Ariana wonder if she shouldn't take advantage of this opportunity. She looked up and Kirin held out his hand to her.

"Well?" He smiled nervously.

She nodded. "Hot springs, it is."

The river that wound its way through the Rokko Mountains was composed of many twisting tributaries that led to the main waterway. Kirin headed upriver and at the second minor branching, turned northeast, climbing higher into the mountains. Ariana stayed close, letting him break the trail for her. The sound of bubbling water grew closer and there was a strong scent of minerals in the air. 

"You guys don't come here very often, do you?" Ariana commented, gingerly stepping past a prickly vine. "The trail's kind of overgrown."

"We generally fly in," Kirin grunted as he held a branch up for her. "However, the Three would have spotted us and then we would have had company."

She smiled as she passed him. "Oh-ho! You wanted me all to yourself?"

"Don't be ridiculous." His words didn't have the same acerbic ring as before. 

Coming to the top of the trail, Ariana stopped and stared. The hot springs were situated in a deep ravine, half-sheltered by a high-arching grotto that went a small distance into the mountain. A narrow waterfall ran in rivulets down a sheer wall and a massive grey granite slab formed a natural partition in the bathing pool. The water went from a dark blue-green in the deepest part to a vibrant turquoise in the shallows.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Kirin commented over her shoulder.

"Yeah," she breathed as she took it all in. "It's beautiful."

"Here," he said as he led the way down the path, "the females like to stay to the right side of the boulder. It's shallower on that side, and there's a ledge under the water to sit on." He pulled aside a low branch to reveal an open-sided hut. There were shelves and pegs to put clothing and a low bench to sit on. "You can put your things there if you like."

"Any towels?"

"I'm afraid not," Kirin replied. "Hikers sometimes find their way in here."

"Oh, well," Ariana sighed, bluffing her way through. "I'm sure I don't have anything that you haven't seen before."

Huffing, he refused to comment on that and instead said, "I'll be on the other side." He did a low glide over the water and landed somewhere on the far side of the boulder. He disappeared into the trees. 

Ariana flopped onto the bench. "Okay, Ari… what now?" She thought about it while she took off her clothes. Since gargoyles lived in clans, they didn't have the same hang-ups about nudity that most humans did but they did observe the social niceties. According to Midori, being invited to bathe together was considered to be a provocative courtship ritual among Ishimura gargoyles. It was a sign of trust between equals.

She shook her head and folded up her shirt to put with her shorts. "What are you thinking?" she told herself. "He's not interested in you. Stop that!"

There was an enormous splash. Ariana lifted up the branch just enough to look out. Kirin's antlered head broke the surface of the water. His wet hair lay like a dark gold ribbon past his wings. He smiled unexpectedly and laid back into the water, floating on his back with his wings spread wide.

"I'll be damned," she said, grinning, "He's a big water baby."

As she watched him, Ariana realized that he was deliberately not looking in her direction. He was being almost too polite. She raised one brow ridge and smirked as she planned her grand entrance. Kirin drifted over to the waterfall where the water was no doubt cooler and let the water run over his face. She'd never have a better chance.

"Well?" Ariana asked coquettishly as she posed against the worn granite boulder that formed a natural divider in the bathing pool. She stretched one arm languorously over her head with the other hand cradling her elbow. The tiny hands on her wing spurs were just big enough to cover her breasts while giving them a nice push-up effect as well. She'd kept on her bikini bottoms for modesty; communal bathing was perfectly acceptable in Japan but privately Ariana wasn't quite sure how far to push the envelope with Kirin. 

Speechless, he stared at her as the inside of his ears turned a rosy pink. He was standing chest deep in the water and as he came towards her, she noted with some amusement that he'd left on his Japanese-style loincloth. Apparently, he was as unsure about her as she was of him. His glowing eyes flicked over her and he growled low in his chest, not so much a ferocious snarl but rather an anticipatory purr. He stopped a wings length away and continued to gaze her with a curious hunger in his eyes.

Ariana kept waiting for Kirin to say something until finally the silence began to get on her nerves. While her arms were up, Ariana began to twist her hair around her horns to keep it out of the water. She drew her wings together more securely over her chest as she lowered herself into the water. Kirin noticed the movement and smirked. 

"Oh, shut up," she snapped as she tucked the last of her hair between her horns.

"What an interesting hair style that is," he commented, pointed to her head. "I don't believe Bana could top that."

"Hey, it takes forever to dry," she shot back. "If I didn't have long hair, no one would ever be able to tell me apart from Graeme."

Kirin fell back into the water with a splash and started laughing. His chuckles turned the surface of the water into a washboard of ripples.

Ariana felt vaguely hurt. She sat down on the underwater ledge, crossed her arms over her chest, and settled in for a royal sulk. 

Backstroking out into the center of the pool, Kirin swam into view, still chuckling. "You misunderstand me, Ari-_chan_," he said. "After the show I just had, I find the notion of anyone mistaking you for your brother to be ridiculous. The only thing remotely masculine about you is the way you fight and even then you do it with a certain female ruthlessness, vicious wench."

"Oh, well," she sighed dramatically, "I do the best with what little bosom I have."

"You're going to make me regret ever saying that, aren't you?"

"You've got that right," she sniffed indignantly but she couldn't hide her smirk. She watched as Kirin lazily swam back over to his side of the pool. Not many gargoyles were comfortable in the water but he seemed perfectly at ease. "So," she said lightly to make conversation, "you really like to swim, huh?"

"My father was a fisherman," Kirin commented absently. "He taught me how to swim when I was a hatchling."

Ariana smiled at this voluntary information about his past. "Oh? I thought that Ishimura didn't do the whole parent thing. Their rookery is communal, isn't it?"

"Oh, it is, but it was very obvious who my parents were, even though it was never acknowledged. Most Ishimuran gargoyles have dark hair but my mother had fiery red-gold hair and a long ridged nose. It's entirely possible that she was originally Tengu."

"Really?"

"According to Takamatsu, the Tengu and the Ishimura clans would meet and exchange eggs from their rookeries as a sign of good faith once a century. I imagine it was also a way of freshening the bloodlines." His voice drifted into a storytelling cadence. "My father gave me the height and all these horns. He fancied my mother but she was so shy that she wouldn't speak to him. However, she was a weaver and she couldn't help noticing that my father was making an absolute hash out of repairing his nets."

"Which he did intentionally?"

"Of course."

Ariana laughed. "I see the family resemblance now."

Kirin laughed back. "One thing led to another and I came along in due time. The rookery keepers track whose egg belongs to who but one look at me and everyone knew. When I was old enough, my father would come to the rookery 'for a strong lad to work the nets' and take me out with him. My mother would meet us at the docks and we would take one of the small boats to sail out to one of the islands just off the coast." He gave a huffing sigh. "She would make camp while he taught me to fish in the shallows. It didn't matter if we caught anything or not."

"You were together," she observed. "That's what being a family is all about."

"Yes." He paused thoughtfully. "Sometimes we'd run the trap lines for lobsters and crabs and be away for several nights. _Okaasan_ would wrap me up in her wings and tell me stories. It was years later when I learned to read English that she'd been telling me Kipling and Dickens and others. I never knew that my mother loved to read until after she was gone."

"What happened?"

"There was a bad storm season when I was in my late twenties," Kirin said solemnly. "My father and a handful of others were lost at sea. The wreckage washed up on shore, along with the bodies of the human crewmen but any gargoyles would have sunk to the bottom. My mother couldn't bear it and she died not long after, they say of a broken heart."

"That's a shame."

"That's the way it is between mates sometimes," he commented. "You can get so totally wrapped up in each other that you can't imagine living without them. The loss of a mate makes you feel like you've lost part of yourself."

The bitter tone of his voice made Ariana suspicious. She chewed her bottom lip for a few moments and finally gave into her own curiosity. "That almost sounds like the voice of experience," she ventured carefully. 

The silence on the other side of the rock was becoming deafening when he finally answered. "Yes." The words had no regret, only a simple finality. "I was with her for seven years."

"The guys said that you didn't have a mate."

"They would have not known," Kirin admitted, his soft voice being projected over the steaming water. "I only told O-tama. I did not want anyone to feel sorry for me."

"Why?" Ariana prompted.

It was several minutes before he answered. "She left me." He sighed bitterly. "None of our matings ever produced an egg."

"Oh." Ariana blinked, uncertain as to what to say. "That doesn't necessarily mean—"

"Kai and the elders allowed a human doctor to examine me – most humiliating. It seems that I am quite sterile."

"Are you sure?" His sudden confession explained a lot; Ariana was worldly enough to know how much virility mattered to a male gargoyle. She had witnessed firsthand what a struggle it had been for Lexington to conceive a child with his mate. 

"It happens," he said gruffly. "It's the price of inbreeding in our species. My mate was so upset at our failures that I swallowed my pride and asked a friend to help us have a child."

"Whoa." That was an aspect to the whole mating game that Ariana hadn't considered. "You guys did what? I always thought males were territorial about that kind of thing."

"Taking a second mate during a breeding season is not unheard of in Ishimura," Kirin said blandly as if he were giving a lecture. "My friend's mate and I had worked together in the rookery when we were young. She knew how much it meant to me, to become a father." He took a deep breath. "Since she was already pregnant, she willingly gave her blessing and my friend was free to help us."

"Did it work?"

"Oh, yes… my mate went away with him for a week and she conceived. I was prepared to support her while she carried the egg but she would have no more to do with me." He paused painfully. "She felt that I had lowered her status in the clan. I realized then that she'd never cared for me." 

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?"

"I wanted her as my mate so badly that I would have done anything to win her." He allowed anger to seep into his words. "I gave up teaching for her. I fought my way up through the ranks to become a weapons master for her. I was so blind with love for her that I never saw that her ambitions came first – when I stopped being useful to her, she threw me away." His voice dropped. "Everything – all those years together, everything I did – she ripped out my heart and left an empty hole."

Ariana chewed on her thumbnail. She realized now that this was what O-tama had been talking about; there was so much pain in Kirin's voice that she didn't know how he could bear it. Gargoyles mated for life; over the past decade or so, Xanatos' biologists had found hard scientific proof to account for their mating behavior. Socially, it was unthinkable for a mated pair to reject each other but in those rare instances when it did happen, the gargoyles involved were often ostracized by their clan. 

Something Kirin had said only the night before stuck in Ariana's mind -- _"I'll never go back to Ishimura – too many bad memories."_  He must have felt so isolated, so alone. She could see the agitated twitch of his fur-tipped tail beneath the water. If it made him so upset, she wondered why on earth he would have told her. Nothing she could possibly say could make him feel better unless… she eased over to the very edge of her ledge and stretched out her hand towards him. 

He drew in his breath sharply. 

"It's okay," she said softly. "I'm not that girl."

His hand shook as their fingertips touched. She held her breath, her lower lip caught between her teeth. His fingers, callused from years of martial arts, slowly traced the curve of her thumb and the inside of her palm before accepting what was offered and folding his hand around hers. "No, you're not," he said finally in a rough voice, "You're unique, Ari-_chan_."

"So I've been told." She smirked as he threaded his fingers through hers. "So how did you wind up here?"

"Nothing was ever said in public but eventually everyone knew. No one had to say it -- I could see the pity in their eyes," Kirin answered. "I began to withdraw from the clan – traveling first to the outpost at Mount Zao and then farther up the mountains. Kai didn't protest my excursions and eventually he gave me permission to leave Ishimura freely. I became ronin, a gargoyle without a clan."

"Where did you go?"

"Here and there," Kirin shrugged, making ripples in the water. "I stayed in Tokyo for a few years." He gave a half-hearted chuckle. "That's where I developed a taste for pocky."

Ariana laughed back. "And your nasty chocolate addiction, no doubt."

"One could have worse vices. The city wasn't for me though," he continued somberly. "It was too bright and too loud and too many people. I decided to travel and visit the places I'd only read about – temples, castles, Mount Fuji…"

"Mr. Tourist," she teased.

He snorted. "Eventually, I found my way here to the Rokko Mountains."

"Where you met the Tengu."

"They needed help to rebuild and even then, over half of them were elders. My strong back was welcome then, even if they didn't trust me at first." His reflection in the water smiled. "One night I had three little helpers too many underfoot and I finally stopped what I was doing, pulled the Three into a circle and taught them their first teaching game. O-tama caught me at it and the next thing I knew, the clan was building a schoolroom for me." A loon called in the distance and they both grew silent listening to it. "What about you? Do you have someone waiting for you in Ishimura?"

"Not really," Ariana replied, pulling her hand free. "Everyone my age has someone but the boys never gave me a glance. I'm good enough to spar with and to joke around with and to be in plays with but I'm just not good enough to kiss." She was proud to have gotten the words out without crying but her voice still shook.

"Aren't you exaggerating?" Kirin asked. "Males that age can be rather stupid – I should know; I was one."

"That's what my parents say but they've never seen the way the boys look past me like I'm not even there." She snorted. "The only male that's ever kissed me was Winston and that was when we were in a play the last time that I was in London. It hardly counts."

"How do you know?"

Ariana rolled her eyes. "Please – Winston is gay. He only did it because he had to." She sighed. "A girl's first kiss should mean something. Whoever kisses her should do so because it's the one thing that he most wants to do at that moment. It should make you feel like you're the only two people in the world." 

"Ah."

"Anyway," she continued, "I got tired of not fitting in. I've heard Tengu stories all my life, so I thought maybe this might be a place where I belong." She flicked a floating leaf away, sending it spiraling off into the current. "It's just my luck that I don't fit in here either."

"A fine pair we make," Kirin commented, shifting his wings and making the water ripple in widening circles. "Fate has played a cruel trick on us." He snorted. "Or on me, at least. You are not ugly, Ari-_chan_."

"Yes, I am!" Ariana retorted hotly. "I look like Dad in drag."

"Nonsense." He paused for a moment and another loon called in the distance. "Do you want to know what I see when I look at you?"

She sighed. "All right, what?"

"Do you remember that first night? When you came to Tenjo Temple?"

"Yes?"

"I approached from downwind. We had seen you from the sky, perched on Tengu Rock, and I had fully intended to punish you for desecrating one of our most sacred landmarks."

"Like there was a sign on the thing saying 'Don't Sit Here.'"

"When I got within range, you were brushing your hair." His voice softened. "At the time, I thought it was incredibly irreverent but even then I must confess that I truly enjoyed watching you. Your hair became so very glossy, so much so that the moonlight seemed to dance upon it."

Ariana felt her cheeks grow hot with a heat that had nothing to do with the hot springs.

"Your whole manner changed too. You sat very straight with your head tilted to one side. Your hands performed each stroke so gracefully." He sighed. "You closed your eyes and I couldn't help noticing how long and feathery your eyelashes are. Brushing your hair is the only time I think that you're truly at peace with yourself."

"Why do you say that?"

Kirin laughed harshly, puffing out his upper lip. "You may not want me to say." 

"Try me."

"Have you ever listened to yourself, Ari-_chan_? You hide your insecurities behind a façade of wisecracks and self-depreciating humor. How can you expect anyone to like you when you do not like yourself?"

Ariana didn't know whether she wanted to burst into tears or to leap over the rock and hold Kirin's head under the water. She glared in his general direction. "Why don't you follow your own advice? It's clear you've been playing the wounded martyr so long that you're afraid to do anything else."

"See?" Kirin shot back scornfully. "Always the sharp retort, the witty comeback -- you'll grow bitter and lonely before your time if you keep that up."

"Sounds like a one man pity party to me," she retorted. "If you hadn't been hiding out here in the sticks all these years, you'd know that there have been a lot of scientific advances in genetics. My uncle Lex had a similar problem to yours and he's got an egg in the rookery now."

"How is this possible?"

"Look, where I live in Manhattan, Xanatos' science branch has been doing research on gargoyle reproduction since the mating flight of 2007. They've learned a lot about how we breed. The world council is anxious to spread gargoyle DNA around."

"But how did they help your uncle?" Kirin asked suspiciously. "I do not understand."

Ariana made a face. "Well, Lex was a special case. The council put him and his mate together because he's web-winged and she carries a recessive gene for it. They had a lot in common – they're both brainy computer nerds – but there was just never any real chemistry with each together." She laughed ruefully. "As a species, we gargoyles are really screwed up when it comes to reproduction. There's a reason why two specific gargoyles are attracted to each other. Have you ever heard of pheromones?"

Kirin had to think for a moment. "A chemical produced by an organism that signals its presence to other members of the same species?"

Leaning forward, she peered around the rock at him. "You ate a dictionary when you were young, didn't you?"

"I've always had excellent mnemonic recall."

"Well, what they found out was that pheromones play a major part in a gargoyle's breeding cycle. The male pheromones stimulate a female's reproductive system and the female pheromones increase sperm production. For some reason, Red Wind's scent wasn't revving Uncle Lex into overdrive so the scientists took samples of both their pheromones and tinkered with it until they found a scent that did." 

"This is all very interesting but how does that apply to me?"

"Don't you get it? A male that isn't properly stimulated has a very low sperm count. Unlike humans, male gargoyles are most fertile at the peak of the breeding cycle. Chances are you and your so-called mate weren't a compatible match. Something about her pheromones weren't working for you."

"Then…" his breathing grew more excited, "…they wouldn't have known this when I was tested thirty years ago," he concluded. "There might be hope for me."

"Maybe." Ariana shrugged and sunk into the water up to her chin. "I'm no expert. You'd have to confer with the doctors at Ishimura to be sure. Xanatos has a couple of research scientists there now."

"It's something worth thinking about," Kirin mused. "_Domo arigato_, Ari-_chan_."

"So, um, is the other thing the guys told me about you true too?"

"I do not know, Ari-_chan_," Kirin replied cautiously. "What did they say?"

Belatedly, she regretted starting this line of conversation but plowed ahead anyway. "They said sometimes the other females comfort you and that you're cheerful for days afterwards. Does that mean, um, everything works?" She put her finger in her mouth and bit it to keep from bursting out in nervous giggles. 

"I'm going to kill Takakura," he growled under his breath. 

"I didn't say that Tak said it."

"You didn't have to – the other two have better sense."

She lifted her chin. "Well? Is it true?"

"My blade is still sharp, if that's what you mean." His low voice grew amused. "Does that make you blush?"

Her cheeks were burning but she lied and said airily, "Please, I'm red already. How could you possibly tell?"

Kirin swam back around the rock to eye her speculatively. He smiled slowly. "Oh, yes… you're blushing."

"I am not!"

"Denial is an admission of guilt."

"You are so full of it," she shot back, but the bemused look in his hooded eyes made her want to squirm. He started to come closer and she began to have second thoughts about the game that she and Kirin were playing. The possibilities were both exciting and frightening.

The water suddenly became scalding hot. Ariana barely had time to wrap her wings more modestly around herself to climb out when Kirin abruptly snatched her from the water and climbed the great sloping rock. He had a grim expression as he dug his talons into the stone. 

"What--?" Before she could finish her sentence, Ariana felt the earth shake beneath them. She threw her arms around his neck and found herself squashed against his chest as he anchored them both to the rock face. 

"The hot springs," Kirin began to explain, half-shouting over the rumble, "they are fed by a magma vent at the base of the mountain. The temperature always surges before a tremor. Bide – this will pass quickly." He arched one of his wings over them to block a cascade of loose pebbles and debris. 

Ariana had witnessed many things in her time-dancing travels but to see the once peaceful environs around her erupt violently with nature's fury took her breath away. The steaming water of the hot springs were now boiling and hissing and she realized how close they'd been to being cooked alive. "Jalapeña!" she swore. "How often does this happen?"

"Minor tremors happen a few times a year," he answered, "but it's been several years since we've had a major quake." He flexed his wings nervously. "This one is starting to subside. We'll wait a few minutes to be sure."

A tree slowly crashed to the ground and Ariana unconsciously winced, tucking her head neatly under his chin. She felt another rolling tremor start through the granite rock against her back. It built in intensity and the vibration felt like it was rattling her bones apart. A small whimper escaped before she could help it. For a few seconds, she felt like she was a tiny hatchling again, falling into the darkness. Panicked, she started to hyperventilate.

Kirin sprang away from the rock face and with several strong strokes of his wings, managed to get them up to a safe hovering height just above the treetops. He reached down and hooked his right arm under her knees so that she was cradled in his arms. "Earthquakes frighten you?" he asked quietly. There was no mocking in his voice, just mild concern.

"Yeah," she admitted, head still tucked under his chin. "We got caught in one when I was little. I fell out of Dad's arms into a fissure and I was so scared. I thought I'd be lost forever." She took a deep breath and shuddered. "I guess you never forget some things."

"Ah." Unexpectedly, he turned his head and rubbed side of his jaw against her brow ridges. "You may not think so, Ari-_chan_, but it's a relief to know that you're not totally fearless."

"Very funny," Ariana retorted automatically but his little joke had helped to break the tension and she started to relax. She became aware of his heart pounding like a koto drum and the scent of the mineral salts from the springs drying on his skin. Closing her eyes, she snuggled in and his arms inexplicably tightened around her.

"This has a strange feel to it," Kirin commented, frowning as he looked around. "I think there may be more tremors. We should get back to the village." He glided neatly to Ariana's side of the bathing pool.

Her feet had just touched the ground when another light tremor shook the ground. Her arms went around his midsection before Ariana had time to think about it. Instead of pulling away, Kirin reached up and unwound her hair from around her horns. As it fell down her back, his right hand followed, his fingers lightly moving through her hair as if playing harp strings. Goosebumps rose on her skin and she shivered in delight.

"We shouldn't….," he whispered. "I have no right." His words, however, were contradicting his actions. His left hand had slowly slid along her right arm and was now caressing the small of her back.

"_Chaji_teaches us," she whispered back, "that life is full of fleeting moments." She lifted her chin to his shoulder and tilted her head to the right so she could look him in the eye. "Don't think, Kirin-_san_," she said as she untucked her wings and deliberately slid them around him. "Enjoy the moment."

His eyes widened for a second and then closed as their bare torsos touched. With a low groan, his wings encompassed them both. Another tremor, harder than the last, shook the ground beneath their feet and neither of them noticed.

**_To be continued in "Tengu", Part V…._**


	5. Tengu: Part 5

**Tengu**

A TGS-based story

by C.S. Hayden

Characters from the "Gargoyles" show are the property of Disney and Buena Vista Television. All other characters are from The Gargoyles Saga fanfiction series and the story "Yama's Path" by Kimberly Towle. Excerpt from "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë.

**Part V:**

Steam hissed as huge rolling bubbles writhed over the surface of the hot springs. A series of low rumbles echoed across the mountain range. Ordinarily, Ariana would have been terrified but at the moment she was too occupied. It was warm and safe beneath Kirin's wings. There was something intoxicating about the sensation of skin gliding against skin that made Ariana want to climb Kirin like a tree. She pressed her cheek into his chest as she ran her hands down the long slope of his back and she was rewarded by a purring growl that made her smile simply because she was happy to hear it. Kirin's face was buried in her hair as he held her close. His breath was warm on the back of her neck.

"That tickles," she sighed blissfully as his big hands glided restlessly up the curve of her spars, just barely brushing the erogenous zone between her wings. "I could get to like this."

"It gets better." His voice was ragged. "You smell so good." Kirin drew his ridged nose slowly up to nuzzle her ear. "I won't lie." He smiled against her neck. "I've wanted this."

"Really?" she murmured as she nuzzled him back. "For how long?"

"Does it matter?" Kirin caressed her cheek with his thumb before letting his fingers drift through her hair and down her back. It was like he was memorizing the touch and feel of her; Ariana suspected that it was something that he'd wanted to do for some time but hadn't allowed himself to. All the excuses that he had made to hold her hand or to sit close to her or to touch her hair suddenly made sense.

"I suppose not." His fish-like whiskers were dangling in front of her face. Acting impulsively, Ariana darted forward and caught his barbels in her beak, glancing up mischievously into Kirin's startled eyes. She slowly let them play out as she arched back away from him, sucking on them lightly as they trailed over her tongue like fat spaghetti.

A shudder rippled down Kirin's body to his toes and his hands tightened on her hips. His fur-tipped tail whipped around and ran up the back of her legs in a silky whisper that made her shiver and curl her toes. As she squirmed in his grasp, Ariana discovered that, while Kirin towered over her, his muzzle and her beak easily bridged the difference in their heights. It would be so simple for them to kiss – she could feel his breath on her lips and knew that he was thinking the same thing. Mentally, she urged him to kiss her and closed her eyes slowly in anticipation.

A deep, pulsating rhythm boomed out across the hills, in counter-balance to the rumbling tremors. Kirin pulled away slightly and turned his antlered head to catch the sound. His body tensed in her arms and reluctantly Ariana pulled away and crossed her wings back over her chest.

"What is it?"

"Goro is sounding the drums. Something's wrong at the village." He looked down at her, contrite. "I am sorry, Ari-_chan_, but duty –"

"—must come first." She hid her disappointment behind a brave face. "It's the first rule of bushido, Kirin-_san_. What else can we do?"

Unexpectedly, he pulled her back into his arms. "When this is over, we will make our own moment." He gently rubbed his brow ridges against hers. "I promise, Ari-_chan_, I will make it worth waiting for."

She set her chin firmly. "I'll hold you to that."

Without another word to each other, Ariana and Kirin immediately bolted to get their clothes back on. Her wings snagged on her shirt and as she struggled to get it on over her head, her armband began to buzz angrily. She switched it on and continued to dress.

"Yeah, Graeme… I'm here."

"Sis, are you all right?" her brother asked anxiously. "I'm reading seismic activity over there."

"Earthquake, duh." She started to put on her shorts and changed her mind about putting them on over wet underwear. "And just when it was starting to get really good too."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." She hung her panties on a peg and made a mental note to return for them later. "I'm okay, Graeme, really."

"Look, it's not a natural phenomenon," Graeme insisted. "I finally broke into Wariguri's security files. There's always been a huge silver deposit there but until recently, there's never been anyway to get to it. Ishikiri is there to do deep-mantle probes using a new technology that's never been out of the labs."

Ariana stopped in mid-zip. "They're field-testing? Here?" Another rumble shook the ground and she hastily zipped up her shorts, pushing her way past the overhanging branches that concealed the open-sided hut. A startled grey fox bounded away into the underbrush. "What you're saying is that Ishikiri is causing these tremors."

"Exactly!" Graeme's voice grew more agitated. "Satellite surveillance shows that the Tengu village is right on top of the Hyogo juncture – it's series of fault lines that overlap like a shuffled deck of cards."

Choosing a tall tree, Ariana quickly began to climb to gliding height. "That doesn't sound good," she grunted as she pulled herself through the branches. "What's the worst case scenario?"

"I'm looking at direct feed from the Japan Geographical Survey," Graeme replied. "The juncture is stable now, but if it shifts, the resulting earthquake will be worse than 1995."

"Ari-_chan_!!" Toe came streaking towards her like a feathered comet. "Is Master Kirin with you? It's terrible!"

"Keep the comlink open, Ari!" Graeme said quickly. "I want to keep on top of this."

"Then you'd better be quiet, bro." Ariana sprang out from the tree and rode the column of heated air rising from the hot springs up to met Toe. "What's happened?"

"The village!" Toe called out. "There's been a rock slide! It's blocked the rookery entrance."

"What?" Kirin came up from the other side of the massive granite boulder. "But the rookery is part of an old silver mine. It's carved out of solid rock." He had made some effort to put his hair back in some semblance of order; however, it was still wet and dripping down his back.

Toe gave both him and Ariana a wide-eyed look and ruffled his crest nervously but wisely kept his comments to the matter at hand. "Takamatsu has called everyone back to the village, sensei! O-tama's hut dropped a wall and Kiyo was badly burned when the kitchen roof fell in." He shifted in the wind. "I'm sure there's more damage than that. Doryo and Mikano were examining all the building supports when I left. Goro had Tancho and Takakura helping him dig out the rookery."

The drums sounded again, this time more urgent. Toe shot a panicked look at Kirin.

"Go on ahead," Kirin snapped. "Ari-_chan_ and I will be right behind you." The younger Tengu pivoted on a wingtip and headed towards the village.

"Kirin, I've been talking to Graeme," Ariana said, not waiting for an opening as they followed in Toe's glide path. "He thinks Ishikiri is doing this."

"Yeah," Graeme chimed in. "I'm looking at the orbital scans now."

"Orbital scans?" Kirin glanced up worriedly. "You can see us?"

"Geophysical data mostly," Graeme answered, "although if you like, I could hack into a military satellite and snap a few pics with their cameras." His words had an audible smirk to them.

Kirin looked over at Ariana who was making a face and smiled ruefully. "No, I don't think that will be necessary, thank you."

 "Hey!" Ariana glanced around and pointed back towards the campgrounds. "The Ishikiri crew is that way!"

"We need to get to the village, Ari-_chan_," Kirin said firmly as he steered them away. "We need to get into the rookery. If those eggs are damaged, the Tengu may never recover from it."

"But—"

"Go ahead, Ari," Graeme interrupted. "Sohma is on his way there from the Osaka offices. If Ishikiri Geotech is behind these tremors, he'll want evidence to back it up."

Smoke rose from the Tengu village, stinging their eyes as Kirin and Ariana sailed in. The first thing that they saw clearly was Tancho racing across the compound with two logs under each arm. A section of the mountainside had come loose and several large boulders now covered the deep fissure where the Tengu kept their eggs. Goro and several males that Ariana couldn't immediately identify were trying desperately to clear the rubble. Tak had a pry bar and was above the spill trying to lever out one of the bigger rocks while the others applied brute force to it.

Kirin coasted in for a landing, snatched up another iron pry bar from the ground, and jammed it in the narrow crack that was forming as it began to give way. The others didn't waste time acknowledging him; instead they doubled their efforts and with a slow, grinding screech, they pulled the boulder away. Tak jumped free as a fresh cascade of falling rock tumbled down the sheer rock face but at least there was visible progress as a narrow crevice was revealed.

Boar-tusked Goro looked up, breathing heavily as sweat poured off his ruddy hide. "Kirin! That's what we've needed -- your strong back!" He took a stout log from Tancho and rammed it against the opening that they had been able to dig out. "Miza is trapped inside! She was checking the eggs when the first tremors hit."

"No!" Toe stood dazed for a moment. "Not Miza – why didn't you say so earlier?" he demanded, glaring at Goro with his feathered crest raised. "She's my mother -- I should have been here!"

"Not now, Mozu," Kirin said as he took his place besides Goro as he levered another prop in place. "If you want to help Miza, take Tancho's place and fetch more logs. We'll need to keep this rockslide from coming down on top of us so we can dig them out." He glanced at Ariana. "Go check on the others – send anyone that's free to help. Hurry!"

Dropping to all fours, Ariana bolted down the hill towards the huts. The central meeting hall where she had performed the tea ceremony had lost its supports on one side and was listing drunkenly to one side. The small building that served as a kitchen stood smoldering as Bana and two other older females beat out hot spots with wet blankets. One of them brandished a broom at an opportunistic fox that was making off with a roasted bird. Inside her hut, O-tama treated injuries in spite of the damaged wall and her scattered belongings on the ground.

"Jalapeña…!" Ariana drawled out.

"Is it very bad?" Graeme asked in a low voice, still listening in on her armband communicator.

She frowned. "It's bad enough. I think the village can be salvaged but if they lose the eggs in the rookery, it'll be the end of the Tengu. Their last rookery died on them; I don't think that they could handle something like that again."

"Can you get me some footage? I can set up a direct video feed on the main server here."

"I'll try, bro, but I'll have to be sneaky. Technically, my computer is supposed to be locked up." Ariana scanned the area. Everyone seemed to occupied, even quarrelsome Doryo. Carefully, she ducked around a tree and slipped the palmtop computer out of her pocket. It only took a few seconds to get the webcam up and running. Using the tree as cover, she panned around cautiously, not wanting to attract attention to herself.

"Ouch," Graeme commented. "Anyone injured?"

"I'll go check," she commented. "There's several people around O-tama's hut."

"Clip the palmtop onto your belt so I can see what's going on," he suggested. "If you cape your wings, then that ought to keep anyone from seeing it."

"Gotcha." Putting actions to words, Ariana tucked her wings around her shoulders and headed back into the open. She trotted across the compound. "O-tama! Kirin sent me down here – is there anything that I can do?"

Assisted by one of the other older females, the Tengu healer barely gave her a glance as she covered Kiyo's burns with thin layers of green onion skin. Kiyo, who had bore a strong resemblance to Tic with her distorted humanoid features, had been burned over her shoulders. Her left wing was spread awkwardly over a cloth-covered bamboo rack to keep the thin tissue from sticking to itself. "See to the brazier, Ari-_chan_," she said sharply. "I will need the herbs in the pestle crushed. Can you grind them to a fine powder?"

"Yes, right away," Ariana answered as she put more charcoal into the bottom of the brazier. "We were at the hot springs when it started. I've never seen water boil like that."

"You weren't in the water, were you?" O-tama asked, looking her over quickly. "Are you all right?"

"No, Kirin got us out just in time." The words slipped out before she realized it. She bent her head to her work and concentrated on grinding the herbs.

"Kirin took you to the hot springs, did he?" O-tama said thoughtfully.

"I told Bana that's where they went." Kiyo giggled, sipping from a cup that smelled of medicinal herbs and sake. "That's where he always likes to go the first time."

Ariana shrugged. "We had just finished eating some trout and we smelled like fish," she admitted. "Nothing happened." She banged the mortar noisily the side of the pestle noisily, thinking darkly about Kiyo's comment and making a mental note to ream Kirin about it later.

"Ah." O-tama glanced at her work. "Not quite so hard, dear. Have they cleared the rookery yet?"

"No, they had just managed to pry one of the larger rocks loose when I left," Ariana answered. "Kirin said to send up anyone who was available to help."

"Poor Miza," Kiyo sighed drunkenly while O-tama carefully smeared more salve on her wing. "I should have gone with her but someone had to tend to dinner."

"Here, Ari-_chan_," O-tama said as she held out a bowl, "that's good enough. Pour the herbs in here. If the water's boiling, add it to the bowl so the tonic can brew." She cast a nervous look back over towards the steep rock face visible over the trees. "Takamatsu will want to help in the rescue. He doesn't have the strength for such things – Ari-_chan_, do me a favor and keep an eye on him."

"All right."

"Take these supplies with you," O-tama handed her a canvas bag; "Give them to Mozu. He may need them if—" her voice faltered – "when they find Miza." The silver-haired healer gave one last troubled look towards the rookery and went back to Kiyo's burns.

Slinging the bag over her shoulder, Ariana went in search of Takamatsu. She didn't have to go far. The raven-headed leader of the Tengu was leaning heavily on his staff and watching intently as Doryo and a robust older male with heavy curving spikes on his temples and smaller ones along his jawline carefully examined the central building.

"Well?" called Takamatsu querulously. "What do you think, Doryo? Can the damage be repaired?"

Doryo wiped the sweat off his bald head with a dirty sleeve. "We were fortunate that there was solid stone beneath the north side. I think we can salvage the flooring but we'll need to dig out the supports." He shook his head. "The foundation will need to be re-laid. It will take at least a week to do properly."

"Makino?" Takamatsu turned to the other male. "What is your opinion?"

The spiked gargoyle stood up slowly and dusted off his tunic. Ariana guessed him to be the same age as Goro. "I agree," Makino said. "We'll have to re-cut the pillar on the southeast corner. That alone will take several nights."

"Yes," Takamatsu agreed, nodding his head slowly, "and we'll need to bring limestone from the quarry to grind for mortar." He tapped his staff against his sooty black beak.

"It sounds like you'll have your work cut out for you," Ariana commented, coming up behind him.

"Lady Ariana!" Shaken from his thoughts, Takamatsu gave her a startled glance. "Are you all right? The earthquake did not harm you?"

"No, I'm fine, Takamatsu-_sama_," Ariana quickly reassured him. "I was just helping O-tama. She asked me to bring some things up to Mozu but I thought I'd check in with you first."

The raven-headed Tengu cocked his head curiously as he absorbed the full impact of her words. "That's O-tama's medicine bag," Takamatsu observed. A sharp metallic sound rang out, followed by another. He glanced up the hill. "What has happened?"

Belatedly, Ariana realized that she had said too much. One glance at the silent fury on Doryo confirmed that. "It's all right," she dissembled glibly. "O-tama has her hands full treating Kiyo, that's all. She wants Mozu do take care of any first aid chores."

"Yes," Doryo agreed hastily. "Mozu is a healer apprentice, after all. Let him tend to the bumps and scrapes."

"I suppose so," Takamatsu agreed reluctantly. He continued to stare up the hill. "Still, I should check on the rookery as well." He started to climb the gentle slope but a stone turned beneath his foot and he stumbled. All three gargoyles leapt to support him.

"Please, Takamatsu-_sama_!" Ariana said earnestly. "There's too many loose rocks here! I'll go up and check for you."

Doryo dismissed her with a toss of his head. "Go!" He took Takamatsu's arm and began to steer him away.

Not waiting for his protest, Ariana dropped to all fours and ran back up to the rookery. The males had managed to move more debris but they'd come to a slab of stone that was blocking the entrance. It looked to Ariana as if part of the mountain had dropped down like an immense door. Goro had produced a pair of hammers and he and Kirin were taking turns driving a steel bar into a fracture in the stone. Toe was standing on Tak's shoulders as he cleared a space above the slab.

"Toe, O-tama sent you some medical supplies." She cocked her head. "What are you doing up there?"

"The stone here is layered – the quake loosened it up," Tancho answered. "Tak's weight caused that big slab to slide down." He nodded his head to the side. "Go over there and check on him, will you? He took a nasty fall."

Following his head movement, Ariana quickly went over to where Tak was lying on the ground. He was covered in dust and trying to wrap his torn sleeve around a nasty scrape on his forearm that had left his ruddy skin raw from elbow to wrist. "Wait, Tak," Ariana said, opening the bag, "That's filthy – you'll only get a nasty infection. At least let me put a clean bandage on it."

"No!" Tak said curtly, pushing her away. "I don't deserve it!"

"Don't be stupid," she said as she grabbed his wrist and began to wind a length of clean linen around it.

"You don't understand," he shot back hotly. "We could hear Miza's voice calling to us. I got in a hurry and didn't wait for the others to put the braces in place." Tak looked away, in an uncharacteristic display of remorse. "Fine leader material I'm turning out to be. She'd be out of there if I only waited a few minutes more."

"You don't know that," Ariana said firmly, splitting the end of the bandage and tying it off. "Sometimes a leader must take risks – that's part of the job. You couldn't know that the rock face was going to be unstable."

"It doesn't matter," Tak said dismissively. "Miza will run out of air long before dawn." He struggled to his feet and began to limp back to the rookery, setting his left foot gingerly on the ground. Ariana started to call him back but the grim look on his face dissuaded her.

"Ari-chan?" Graeme whispered from her armband. "Is he gone?"

"Yeah," she answered softly as she backed away from the work crew. "Everyone's busy."

"Ishikiri is gearing up for the second round of testing." Graeme's voice sounded worried. "You've got to stop them."

"You're sure?"

"I tapped into their intersystems communications net. Wariguri just gave the okay." He paused. "Sohma says he's nearly to your location."

"What?" Ariana exclaimed without realizing that she'd raised her voice. "How's he traveling so fast?"

"Beats me but Owen says that Sohma is one of his most trusted cousins, whatever that means."

"Owen has cousins?" She raised her brow ridges.

"Lying wench!"  Grabbing a handful of her hair, Doryo spun her around. "Deceiver! You agreed to abide by our rules and yet here you are, betraying us to the humans!"

"Hey!" Angrily, Ariana grabbed his hand and jabbed her thumb into certain pressure points to force him to release her. "We don't have time to fight about this! You guys need all the help you can get. You can't hide from the outside world forever!"

"We Tengu fend for ourselves!" Doryo retorted angrily as he rubbed his hand. "Living amongst for a few nights does not give you the right to tell outsiders of our affairs!"

There was a squawk as Graeme boosted the volume on his end. "Dude, it's an earthquake – it's all over the news!" he said hotly. "There's going to be emergency crews all over that area."

Doryo stared at her armband. "Who is that? How does he know I am here?"

"That's my brother," Ariana snapped back, "and he can hear you."

"Yeah, so don't make me come down there, toad-face," Graeme said sarcastically. "Ari, you've got to go. They just started the pre-test countdown."

"What is he talking about?" Doryo demanded. He threw open his arms and blocked her path. "You will do nothing until you explain yourself!"

The sound of their raised voices was suddenly deafeningly loud and as Ariana looked around, she realized why. Kirin and Goro both had stopped hammering at the stone slab and the Three had paused in their tasks as well. Handing his hammer to Tak, Kirin started towards her with a scowl on his face. The last thing Ariana wanted was for him to fight her battles for her and she turned back to Doryo with fire in her eye.

"Look, I know who's causing this. There's a bunch of humans conducting illegal tests not far from here. If we go there now, we can stop them from making things worse." She leaned in. "Gargoyles have rights these days – if you'd bother to join the modern world, you'd know this!"

"No!" Doryo threw his hands out in dismissive gesture. "We will have nothing to do with humans. It is the way it has always been!"

"You Tengu may think you can hide from the world but I've got news for you," Ariana retorted hotly, "the world isn't going to hide from you!"

The disgruntled elder recoiled, screwing his face up into a hideous mask. "How dare you speak with such disrespect? You are not Tengu – get out!"

"Doryo!" They turned to see Takamatsu getting off of Makino's broad back. The Tengu leader had found a way around his infirmity to join the work party. "You may rule the council of elders but I lead this clan!"

An antlered shadow fell over her. Kirin set his hand gently on her right shoulder. "Let Takamatsu handle Doryo," he murmured in her ear. "He will settle this." Just knowing that Kirin was there made Ariana feel more confident in the face of Doryo's anger but the nervous tingle on the back of her neck wouldn't go away.

In the middle of all the commotion, a grey fox with reddish markings and three tails ran into the clearing. It gave three sharp barks and its vulpine form blurred, becoming a slim, well-dressed man with a swatch of dark auburn hair falling rakishly over his eyes. Tossing his hair back carelessly, he gave the angry gargoyles a vaguely amused look like their argument was the most entertaining thing he'd seen all night.

Ariana blinked. "Oh-kay…," she said slowly, "The whole cousin thing makes sense now."

"A kitsune?" Takamatsu said wonderingly. "I have not seen one of the fox spirits since my hatchling days."

"Ichiro Sohma, at your service," the newcomer said with a bow. "It's true, there's not as many of us as there once were but the Council of Nine-Tails likes to keep its paws on the pulse of Japan." He bowed separately to Ariana. "One of my ancestors, Kemuri-Kazan, once tried to interfere with your father's dance, my lady. I am duty-bound to restore the family honor."

**_(TimeDancer season 3: "Giri)_**

"See what she has done?" Doryo cried out, spittle flying from his wide toad mouth. "First humans and now Oberon's children – where will it all end?"

Graeme snorted from her armband. "Will somebody **_PLEASE_** shut this guy up?"

Takamatsu stepped forward, leaning heavily on his staff. "Peace, Doryo-_san_," he said firmly, "I will handle this." He drew himself up to face the kitsune. "I hope you will forgive us, Sohma-_san_. My clan is unaccustomed to humans appearing in our midst, or rather those who appear human."

"Ah, is that all?" Sohma swept his hair back with his fingers and as he did, his modern business suit shifted to a kimono tucked into harama trousers and his face turned a shaded reddish-gray with a fox's pointed muzzle. Crinkling his amber-colored eyes, he smiled at them. "Is this better, honorable Takamatsu-_sama_?"

"You… know of us?" Takamatsu asked slowly.

"We kitsune are always watching," Sohma twitched his whiskers and winked at Ariana. "You've uncovered an interesting puzzle for us, my lady. The Xanatech auditors are scheduled to arrive at the Wariguri offices in Osaka even as we speak."

"Sohma-_san_?" Graeme called out over Ariana's armband. "Ishikiri has started a new test sequence. You have to help Ariana stop them!"

"Bide." While Graeme had been speaking, the kitsune's long ears had been quivering. He brushed past the gathering gargoyles and went straight to the huge slab that was blocking the rookery. Putting his head against the narrow crack, Sohma closed his eyes and listened. "Not good," he muttered, "not good at all."

"What is it?" Goro demanded. "What are you saying?"

"Lady Ariana, I can go with you to stop the humans or I can stay and free the unfortunate soul behind this stone – I cannot do both." Sohma turned his bright amber stare on her. "What is your bidding, milady?"

"Miza?" Mozu cast a desperate look over his shoulder. "Ariana, what is he talking about?"

Sohma traced the thin hairline fracture running the length of the stone. "Even now, the air grows thin. Her breath slows." He continued to be fascinated with the crack.

Looking around at the Tengu, the decision was easy to make. "Sohma-san, you free Miza," Ariana said firmly. "I'll go after the Ishikiri crew. Who's coming with me?"

Doryo snorted. "Tengu have nothing to do with humans. We will not help you!"

Ariana appealed to the Tengu leader. "I know what's causing these earthquakes," she said urgently. "Please, Takamatsu-_sama_! If your clan helps me, I can stop this right now!"

"Ari-_chan_, it is our oldest law," Takamatsu said slowly, shaking his head as if he didn't quite understand. "If you leave here to confront the humans, you will no longer be welcome amongst us."

"Ari!" Graeme hissed. "You don't have time for this! Go, girl… **_GO!_**"

The ground beneath her feet began to tremble.

She was in the air in a heartbeat.

The RV rocked as Ariana landed hard and ripped the small satellite dish off the roof of the recreational vehicle and hurled it off into the surrounding woods. She was riding a wave of adrenaline and anger that she converted it to action. "Damned stupid _bakayaros_!" she snarled as she went to work. "You couldn't put this off to some OTHER time, could you? I was FINALLY gonna get kissed but no-o-o-o-o-o!" Sparks flew as she tore one antenna after the other from the roof. "You had to make the earth move! You couldn't wait five more minutes, could you?"

She could hear shouting voices and then a volley of bullets ripped through the top of the vehicle. "Dummies!" Ariana muttered as she neatly swooped away into a neighboring tree. "Even Dracon's goons had better aim than that!"

The door slammed open. The lone Caucasian was first, carrying a pistol in a low, efficient grip. He was followed by three Japanese men bearing various weapons. One of them climbed onto the roof while the others covered him.

"Graeme?" Ariana said quietly, keeping her eyes on the humans below. "Are you still there?"

"I don't know," he answered pertly. "Are you going to bite my head off too?"

She growled. "I pulled the dish and the antennas off the RV. Will that be good enough?"

"It might delay them," Graeme answered after a pause. "At best, it'll interfere with their data collection. You need to get up close and personal, _oniichan_." He snickered. "Sort of like you and Kirin, eh? It sounds to me like you two have been fooling around. What's this about a hot spring?"

"Oh, shut up." Ariana wasn't in the mood to take any of Graeme's teasing. "Are you still tapped into their system?"

"Yeah, the countdown is still going on. You need to get in there. Is the boyfriend there to back you up?"

"He's not my boyfriend, and—" She bit her lip. "—he's not here. I'm on my own." The Japanese man on the roof of the RV held up a piece of metal with her claw marks in it. He tossed it down to the Caucasian who began to scan the treetops. She eased back behind the wide trunk.

"Why, that jerk – if I ever meet him, I'm gonna kick his butt!"

"Lucy and I will have to sell tickets to that." Her hand brushed the palmtop computer that was clipped to her belt. "Graeme," she said thoughtfully, "are you still recording over the webcam?"

"Yeah," he answered, "Owen's been following it in New York. Why?"

"I've got an idea. Can you broadcast me so it picks up on their communications link? It doesn't have to necessarily go global."

"Sneaky," Graeme drawled as his talons tapped audibly on the keyboard. "I like, but it's not your style to bluff."

"Can't be helped," she answered back. "They're armed and I'm not."

"What about your bo staff?"

"Kirin broke it."

"Aww, man… it took me forever to get the balance right on that thing!" The tapping stopped. "All right, I'm feeding it into their comlink now. It's your play, _oniichan_. Be careful!"

Ariana held out her palmtop and panned it in an arc before her. "Let's just see what happens, hmm?" she commented.

The RV shook and the door crashed open. Red jacket was looking around frantically. "Someone is here! They're showing us on the internet!" The men went into an excited huddle and Ariana saw her chance. She went up into the tree tops for a noiseless glide to the ground.

"Smile for the camera, boys," Ariana said boldly, "because you're on live webcast. You're guilty of violating international law by invading gargoyle territory and endangering our breeding sites."

"Don't you believe a word of it," came a voice from behind her. There was the sliding click of a gun being cocked. "Suit up, Atari. I'll need the muscle." One of men ran around the RV where Ariana couldn't see him.

"It is true!" one of the other men stammered. "We saw ourselves on the screen!"

"Is that so?" The gunman's voice grew cold. "She's just playing tricks with you. Drop the computer, gargoyle, right now or I'll shoot it out of your hand."

Wincing at making such an amateur mistake, Ariana complied and winced at the sharp impact as the palmtop hit the ground. She kept her eyes on the group of Japanese and continued. "Ishikiri Geotech is engaged in an illegal field test. This new technology you've designed for deep mantle probes is shifting the fault lines. If you don't stop, you'll hurt a lot of innocent people."

"People?" The lone Caucasian snorted as he began to edge into her peripheral vision. He was unremarkable looking – ash-blond hair, brown eyes – exactly the sort of generic goon that Xanatos hired for his security force. "The only things up here are animals."

"Wrong!" she retorted hotly. "There's been an established gargoyle colony here since after World War II."

"Like I said, animals," he sneered back. "You gargoyles think you're our equals but I know better. It was your kind that ruined the careers of my father and his partner Jacob Feldman."

"That sounds familiar – " Graeme said in a low voice only Ariana could hear, "keep him talking."

"Please," Ariana scoffed, continuing as if Graeme hadn't spoken. "Humans are perfectly capable of ruining their lives with or without us. Go look in the mirror if you're going to point fingers, who ever you are."

"The name's Ratcliffe," he snapped, "Jeremy Ratcliffe. We had it all when I was a kid – fancy house, top schools, all the perks – but that all ended when my father got involved with you gargoyles." He was circling around but keeping well out of range of her wings and tail. Ariana frowned; that alone told her more than he was saying.

"Damn," Graeme murmured. "Ratcliffe and Feldman – the London clan had trouble with them. We've got a loose cannon here…"

"Sounds like bad karma to me," Ariana commented. "That doesn't change the fact that Ishikiri and Wariguri are up to no good here. The Japanese government wouldn't approve your testing request, would they? This whole area is unstable. Your probes are making it worse."

The Japanese began to look uneasily amongst themselves. Ratcliffe laughed harshly. "She knows nothing. Gargoyles are nothing more than flying monkeys!"

Shrugging, Ariana merely replied, "Not according to the United Nations committee on sapient beings."

"Which has NOT been passed," Ratcliffe retorted hotly, "and it won't be as long as the right people are running things."

The superior way he said that made the hackles rise on the back of Ariana's neck. "I see," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. "What honor is there in running things from the shadows?"

"You'd be surprised, gargoyle."

"I'm sure I'd find it most illuminating."

They locked stares with each other. The eager gleam in Ratcliffe's eye worried Ariana. The Illuminati had been lying low for many years but it was a secret society that had existed for centuries, passing knowledge of its existence from father to son for generations. Her clan in Manhattan had known of its existence all too well through their association with Xanatos. Different sects of the Illuminati had different objectives. Ariana wondered just which one Ratcliffe belonged to and she decided to find out.

Looking back at the Japanese men, she called out, "This _gajin_ has been deceiving you. I do not know what Ishikiri or Wariguri originally intended to do with these probes, but he is only using you to achieve his own goals. He has no honor!"

"What do we need with honor?" Red Jacket answered back. "Ratcliffe-_san_ brings us money – you can't buy anything with honor!"

 "My clan follows the way of bushido," Ariana replied. "Honor has its own reward. If you follow this man, he will lead you to ruin."

"Atari, get over here," Ratcliffe ordered, his pistol still aimed at her. "That's problem with you gargoyles – you're so hung up on the past. This is the new Japan, baby. Money talks – no one follows that bushido crap anymore."

Ariana decided to up the stakes. "Then why don't you shoot me if you hate me so much?"

Ratcliffe smiled coldly. "Because bringing in a live female gargoyle will buy my way into the Inner Circle of the Illuminati. That's worth more to me that any profit I'll get from this Ishikiri gig." His taunts finally took him a step too close.

Quick as a whip, Ariana dropped and kicked his legs out from under him, while slapping his gun out of his hand with her wing tip. Ratcliffe yelped in surprise and recovered quickly, bouncing back to his feet and scrambling for the gun in the dirt. She sent him flying with a heel strike to the chin. Before she or Ratcliffe or the Ishikiri crew could move, the ground rolled beneath them with the onset of another tremor.

Ariana fought to keep on her feet, spreading her wings for balance. "Stop the probes!"  she shouted at the terrified Ishikiri crew. "Stop them now!"

The men looked at her, then at each other in indecision.

"You have to stop the probes, or you'll start another earthquake," she screamed at the top of her voice. "Just like the Kobe Disaster of 'ninety-five!" When the men didn't move, she started towards the RV to take action herself.

Red Jacket moved to intercept her. "Stop her!" he shouted. He charged across the still-shaking earth towards her, coming in low to tackle her around her legs.

"Idiot!" Ariana grunted, shoving him back before smashing him in the chest with her knee. As he tried to force air back into his lungs, she snagged him by the front of his jacket and flipped him like a rag doll into a neighboring picnic table. "We don't have time-!"

She started to lunge towards the vehicle only to have the wind knocked out of her by a hard blow to the mid-section. Fighting for breath, she found her left arm and wing pinned to her side by a massive metal clamp. Ariana was lifted high into the air and turned upside down.

"Shards!" she cursed, shaking her hair out of her face to get a good look at what was holding her captive – and wished that she hadn't.

"Shards! A exo-suit!" She knew the design of this robotic suit all too well – it was a Xanatch XFR-2004. Xanatos kept several of them in the castle hangar for moving heavy loads. This one was an older model – it was more angular and clunky than the streamlined versions that they used in Manhattan. The enhanced strength of a human wearing an exo-suit would be more than a match for a gargoyle of her size. She took a swipe at it with her free arm, hoping to snag a hydraulic cable but her talons merely scraped three deep scratches on the armor plating.

"Good work," Ratcliffe told the driver. "Don't lose your grip on her!" He grinned down at Ariana. "I see you don't care for our little 'toy'... Corporate sponsoring has its perks, doesn't it?"

Ariana grunted, trying to pry open the metal claw trapping her.

"You'd have an easier time trying to snap tin-foil in two, beast!" Ratcliffe huffed. He aimed a kick at her, only to get his ankle nearly snapped into two when Ariana savagely bit him. Yelping as he danced away from her head, he snapped, "You filthy bitch! Atari, secure her!"

The exo-suit driver neatly snared her legs and pulled her taut between the two loading clamps. The blood rushing to her head was beginning to make her dizzy. Ariana could see Ratcliffe's foot going back for a second kick and tried to brace for it when a deafening roar split the night.

"Kirin?" Ariana cried as a pair of familiar fur-covered green shins suddenly planted themselves between her and Ratcliffe. The exo-suit tottered backwards slightly, giving her a glimpse of Kirin's face as he bellowed at a shocked Ratcliffe; the male gargoyle's features were so contorted by rage, she hardly recognized him.

Recovering his wits, Ratcliffe lunged forward to throw a punch. Kirin wrapped his larger hand around Ratcliffe's arm and hurled him to one side, where the human slammed into a pair of open equipment cases on the ground. Tumbling to his knees, Ratcliffe wrapped his hands around a long metal pipe that had been inside one of the cases, and lifted it menacingly.

Kirin answered by drawing his tachi, a growl rumbling deep in his chest as his eyes flared like white hot stars. Stalking towards Ratcliffe like a cat hunting a mouse, he swept the blade out to the side, making it glint like a slice of moonlight in the darkness.

The exo-suit swayed crazily and Ariana looked up to see Tak perched on the top of it. He grabbed a handful of the operator's shirt and popped him in the face. "Let her go!" Tak demanded, accenting his words with punches. "Let her go right now!"

"Control box!" Ariana yelled up at him. "There should be a master control box over his chest. Smash it!"

"Here!" Tic's voice rang out, just before the butt of a bo staff slammed into the exo-suit chestplate. A shower of shattered plastic, sparks and metal fragments preceded the sudden whine of disrupted systems and the grinding of smashed components.

Covering her face from sparks and falling plastic, Ariana got a close-up view of Tic's enormous foot as he lunged in again for another strike. The machine gave a harsh, grating whine before it shuddered to a stop, dumping Ariana in an unceremonious heap on the ground.

Tak punched the operator one more time and leapt off in pursuit of other prey but Tic reached down to help her up. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," she gasped. "What kept you guys?"

The tall Tengu youth grinned. "We waited until that kitsune freed Miza. He made a vine grow out of that crack and it shattered the slab blocking the rookery."

"Is she all right? What about the eggs?"

"Miza was a little off-color but she and the eggs were fine. We headed here as soon as we knew she was safe." Tic handed her the bo staff. "Here – we thought of you."

Ariana grinned back. "Sweet!" She glanced around to assess the situation. Tak was fighting Red Jacket while the others were piling back into the RV. The engine turned over and the rear lights came on. "Stop them! We need their equipment for evidence!"

"Evidence for what?" Tic asked as he pulled an iron pry bar out of his belt.

"Just stop them!" Ariana turned and went in the direction of metal crashing against metal coming from the forest. She'd had a taste of his hot temper when Tak had been flirting with her and she didn't know what Kirin might do when he was really angry. A bent length of pipe went whizzing past her head. "Kirin! **_KIRIN_****_!!_**"

"Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" Ratcliffe hadn't made it very far. He was back up against a gnarled oak, the whites of his eyes showing clearly around his pupils. Kirin raised his sword and lashed out in a windmill of sword strikes.

"Kirin, **_NO!!_**" Ariana reached them and gaped at Ratcliffe. His clothes were shredded in a classic _happo__ giri _cut that was traditionally used for dismembering the corpses of criminals. Fresh blood swelled up but the wounds seemed to be mostly superficial.

"That is but a taste, _gaijin_," Kirin growled frostily. "Prepare yourself – you go to join your ancestors!" He shifted his tachi for an overhead strike.

Ariana stepped between them, her bo poised to block. "Kirin, he's not worth it!"

His eyes flicked to hers. "But you are worth it."

"Not like that," Ariana said firmly. "I don't want his life. I want justice. That won't happen if you kill him."

"Ha!" Ratcliffe snorted derisively. "Fat lot you know—"

Without warning, Ariana turned and bounced her bo off Ratcliff's head. "Shut… **UP**!" She rolled her eyes as the second-generation Illuminatus slid down the tree trunk. "Some guys do not know what's good for them." Glancing back at Kirin, she scowled and asked, "What?"

Hiding an awkward smile, Kirin merely shook his head. "To think I was half-sick with worry over you." He lowered his sword and started to reach out for her but before they could touch, there was a loud crash from the campground that shook the ground.

"Bring him with you!" Ariana ordered and bolted back towards the Ishikiri camp. As she ran, she caught glimpses of an animal running alongside her in the underbrush. The RV was lying on its side with Tak perched on top of it, prodding the contents with a long stick. Toe had joined them and was tying the men up against a tree. Tic was watching them as he flipped the iron pry bar in his hand. He spied Ariana and Kirin approaching and called out cheerfully, "Ah, there you are, Ari-chan! Did you know if you pry the tires off one side of these things, they fall over?"

"Yeah," Tak commented, "and then it's like picking snails out of their shells."

A grey fox bounded out of the woods and leapt onto the RV next to Tak and shimmered into the human form of Ichiro Sohma. "Ah," he said mildly, "I see you've taken care of things here." He pulled a phone from his jacket pocket. "It might be best if I deal with the authorities. The humans here aren't quite as comfortable with gargoyles as they are in Ishimura."

"Sohma-_san_," Ariana said as Kirin dropped Ratcliffe on the ground near the other captives, "this one will need Owen's personal attention."

Sohma blinked. "Oh?"

"Tell Owen that I'm sending him someone who needs to be kept under a watchful eye. He'll know what I mean."

"Is that so?" Sohma raised both eyebrows. "I can see I'll be having a very interesting conversation with him later."

Drumbeats echoed over the foothills. All three of the younger Tengu looked sharply at Kirin. He closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them. "You know your duty," he said flatly. "Go on."

The Three looked at him and then at each other. The expressions on their faces puzzled Ariana; they seemed reluctant and unhappy for some reason. In unspoken agreement, they came over to her.

"Here," Tic said as he hastily pulled off one set of prayer beads from around his neck and looped them three times loosely around her wrist. "Take these to remember us by, Ari-chan."

Tak nodded and took her other hand. "No matter what the elders say, we are still your friends."

Toe stood there for a moment, raising and lowering his feathered crest nervously before throwing his arms around her and gathering her in for an abrupt hug. It was like being mugged by a feather pillow but Ariana gamely patted his back and murmured, "Aw, thanks."

"Why didn't we think of that?" Tak asked disgustedly.

Tic snorted. "Because he's the smart one."

"Farewell, Ari-chan," Toe said softly as he released her. He and his brothers trotted off into the trees and disappeared.

"Bye, guys!" Ariana waved after them. "I wonder what all that was about?" She turned back to Kirin but to her surprise, he wasn't there. "Hey! Where'd he go?"

"I don't know," Sohma answered, holding his hand over the receiver of the phone. "Perhaps they were called away by those drums. I know that the other Tengu were very busy in the village when I left to come here."

Frowning, Ariana replied, "I suppose so. I should probably go too." She had the nagging feeling that she had forgotten something.

"Please stay a moment, if you can," Sohma asked politely. "I have a Xanacorp security detail en route. The local police are tied up with earthquake damage."

"All right," Ariana agreed and sat down on a table that was part of the campsite. She toyed with the ceramic beads that Tic had put around her wrist. They were sea green with swirls of copper and terra cotta red that matched her skin. She was missing something; Ariana just knew it, but what?

Putting away his phone, Sohma strolled over with his hands in his pockets. He paused and picked up her palmtop, which had been lying on the ground. "Hmm, this has seen better days. Would you mind if I take this with me? Graeme tells me you downloaded Ishikiri's files on it."

"Sure, no problem."

He tossed his head back to clear the hair from his eyes. "Have you given any thought about how you're going to get back to Ishimura? I'm sure I can arrange for the security chief to deliver you safely to our offices there."

"Hmm?" It took a few moments for his words to sink in. "Oh, I don't have to go back for a few more days, thanks. It's okay."

"Are you sure?" Sohma put his hands behind his back and regarded her solemnly. "I thought Takamatsu's last words to you were very clear."

Staring at him, the events of the night replayed in her head.

_"If you leave here to confront the humans, you will no longer be welcome amongst us."_

Clouds of dust billowed around her as Ariana landed hard, her talons plowing the ground in the center of the Tengu village. "Kirin! O-tama! Where is everyone?"

No one answered. The damaged buildings sagged forlorn and abandoned. Smoke still clung to the burnt roof of the kitchen and the tattered remnants of O-tama's paper-covered walls rustled in the breeze. Ariana turned slowly, her heart sinking as she strained to detect any signs of the gargoyles that she'd lived with over the past week.

"Oh, no…" She pressed the knuckles of one hand against her mouth. "They left… all because of me." There was a sinking feeling in her stomach. "What was I thinking?" Shaking her head, she admitted. "I wasn't – I just went off on impulse like I always do! Stupid, stupid _bakachan_!"

Slowly she went around the village, looking for any trace that they might be coming back. There were a few tatami mats and a few assorted pots but it was as if no one had ever lived there. Her backpack turned up on the porch of the healer's hut. Someone had neatly folded her yukata and placed it on top of it. Ariana placed it inside of her bag and slowly zipped it up.

Walking into the center of the village, she called out, "I didn't mean to break your rules. I'm very sorry if I have offended you." She looked around, even though she didn't expect a response. "I just wanted to help – that's all. I did what I thought was right."

Crickets answered her.

Ariana bowed politely to the four corners of the compass since she lacked an actual person. "Please accept my humble apologies, honorable Takamatsu, and my thanks for the hospitality of your clan. I will not trouble you again." She drew herself up like she was an actress on a stage and walked away into the night.

She was nearly to Osaka when Graeme worked up the nerve to talk to her. "_Oniichan_," he started cautiously, "I—"

"Not now, Graeme," Ariana said curtly and switched off her comlink. She knew her brother was only being his usual, overprotective worrywart self but this was one time that she just didn't feel like talking. She'd stopped Ishikiri from causing any more tremors and she had no doubt that Sohma and Owen would get down to the bottom of the Wariguri double-dealings but she felt totally drained and empty.

"If you're going to the train station," a deep voice said above her, "you're going the wrong direction."

"Kirin?" Ariana gasped. "You're still talking to me?"

"Of course," he said as he glided down to her level. "O-tama pointed out that we were still responsible for seeing you safely home." He was looking down at the city intently. "I am ordered to make that happen." He turned north slightly. "This way."

 Numbly, she followed. "Are you angry?"

"Yes," he answered, "but not with you."

"But—"

"Please, Ari-_chan_. No more talking."

His words were said gently enough but they made Ariana feel worse than if he'd yelled at her. Silently, they sailed through the night sky over Osaka side-by-side but never touching.

Kirin frowned as he looked over the train schedules posted on the big board at the railyard. Since there was no way to mail her back to Sendai City, Ariana was going to take a slower-moving train back to Ishimura. They had been perched on a warehouse roof for nearly an hour waiting for an east-bound train. The easy camaraderie that she and Kirin once had was replaced by an awkward uneasiness. Neither of them really seemed to know what to say.

"Well?" she asked. "It's on the eastbound track."

He sighed. "It's the Ginga night train going to Tokyo but you won't get there before dawn. You'll have to get off well before then and find a place to roost." He glanced at her beneath his bristling eyebrows. "Are you sure you don't want to take up Sohma's offer? I'm sure he will be sure to get you to Ishimura safely."

"No, I got here on my own, I'll go back on my own. Otherwise, what's the point?" Ariana managed a fragile smile. "If you're really worried, you could always come with me. It could be fun."

"With the chaos and mayhem that follows you wherever you go?" The corner of his mouth turned up but it was unconvincing. "I'm not sure the ulcer you've given me can stand the excitement."

"I'll give you Poc-ky...!" she teased in a sing-song voice.

"You need it more than I do." Kirin turned his head away sharply and looked back down at the trains. "When you get to Tokyo, get on a train called the Hokutosei. It'll take you up the coast to Sendai City. You ought know your way to Ishimura from there, _neh_?"

He was deliberately keeping his distance. Ariana had reached out to touch him more than once only to have him flinch away. She sighed and twisted her fingers together. "Yes," she said simply. "I'll be fine."

"The engineer's finished his inspection. It'll be leaving soon."

"Well, then…" She frowned. "Will you tell them that I'm sorry? For all the trouble I caused?"

"You weren't that much trouble." He blew out his upper lip noisily. "You caused some excitement but you meant well."

A piercing metallic screech interrupted any further conversation. Ariana climbed onto the edge of the building. "I've got to go," she called back. "I'll – I'll miss you."

"Not another word – just go." The train gave a lurch and began to move. He waved her away without looking and shouted, "Go!"

Throwing herself off into the air, Ariana chased after the train. She landed lightly on the second car from the end and anchored herself with her talons. "Don't look back, Ari," she told herself. "Don't look." She fought the urge for a full minute before turning her head. There was the bold outline of a horned head against a neon sign and then he was gone.

"Oh, shards!" She punched the roof of the train, leaving a dent. The pain in her knuckles was nothing compared to the unbearable feeling of emptiness washing over her. "I'm not gonna cry," Ariana told herself firmly. "He's probably glad I'm gone."

She thought briefly of calling Graeme and letting him know she was on her way but she really didn't feel like talking to anyone. The hurt was still too fresh – rationally, she knew she'd broke the rules in confronting the survey crew but it had to be done. The Tengu were only reacting the way that they had for centuries. She was sure that it was only Doryo and the more close-minded elders that hated her. O-Tama and Takamatsu and all the rest would understand – or at least, she hoped they would.

The tracks turned northeast as they cleared the coastal mountains and began to go inland. Lulled by the train's motion, Ariana finally gave into her own emotional and physical exhaustion and slept fitfully for a few hours with her wing talons and tail securely lashed to the roof. Her internal clock woke her as the train was going up a steep incline. Mt. Fuji was just behind them in the distance, its snowy peak beginning to turn pink in the pre-dawn light.

"Uh-oh," Ariana commented as she grabbed her backpack and soared off the train. "I nearly overslept!" There was a temple facility just up the hill from the tracks. She made it there just in time to land near a collection of ornamental boulders. Folding her wings over her head and tucking in her tail, Ariana became a new addition to the monks' Zen garden.

The hollow bong of temple bells was fading with the last rays of the sunset when Ariana awoke the next night. Luckily, they were still loud enough to cover the sound of her subdued roar. Ariana felt terrible -- a sure sign that she needed to eat. The rocky shadows provided just enough cover for her to sneak past the monks that were leaving the temple. Several of them were headed down towards the tracks as if a train was due to arrive soon which cheered her up a bit.

Finding a spot higher up on the hill, Ariana decided to have a snack while she was waiting. "Let's see," she commented as she thrust her arm deep in her back pack. "What's this?" she asked as she pulled out a battered paperback. She bit her lip when she realized that it was the copy of **_Jane Eyre_** that she had been reading all week. "Oh, Kirin… you gave me your book." Holding it to her nose, she could smell the cedars that surrounded the schoolroom. "I guess he thought I might like to have it for the trip." She smiled gamely, even though she didn't feel like it. "That was sweet of him."

She found the leaf that she had been using as a bookmark but frowned after she had only read a few sentences. "This isn't where I stopped," she commented. "This is much farther into the story!" Frowning, she noticed that someone had taken a ballpoint pen and underlined several words in the text. Curious, she read the passage.

_"Never," said he, as he ground his teeth, "never was anything at once so frail and so indomitable. A mere reed she feels in my hand!" (And he shook me with the force of his hold.) "I could bend her with my finger and thumb: and what good would it do if I bent, if I upturn, if I crushed her? Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing looking out of it, defying me, with more than courage--with a stern triumph. Whatever I do with its cage, I cannot get at it--the **savage, beautiful creature!** If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose. Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwelling- place. And** it is you, spirit--with will and energy, and virtue and purity--that I want**: not alone your brittle frame. Of yourself you could** come with soft flight and nestle against my heart**, if you would: seized against your will, you will elude the grasp like an essence--you will vanish ere I inhale your fragrance. Oh! come, Jane, come!" _

_As he said this, he released me from his clutch, and only looked at me. The look was far worse to resist than the frantic strain: only an idiot, **however**, would have succumbed now. I had dared and baffled his fury; I must elude his sorrow: I retired to the door. _

_"You are going, Jane?" _

_"I am going, sir." _

**_"You are leaving me?" _**

_"Yes." _

_"You will not come?** You will not be my comforter, my rescuer? My deep love, my wild woe, my frantic prayer -- are all nothing to you?" **_

_What unutterable pathos was in his voice! How hard it was to reiterate firmly, "I am going." _

_"Jane!" _

_"Mr. Rochester!" _

_"Withdraw, then,--I consent; but remember,** you leave me here in anguish**. Go up to your own room; think over all I have said, and, Jane, cast a glance on my sufferings--**think of me**." _

_He turned away; he threw himself on his face on the sofa. "Oh, Jane! **my**** hope--my love--my life!**" broke in anguish from his lips. Then came a deep, strong sob. _

A tear splattered on the page before Ariana realized that she was crying. After what he had told her about his past, it was no wonder that Kirin identified so much with Rochester here in this passage where he was trying convince Jane not to leave him. She re-read the underlined phrases and remembered what Kirin had said about the book: _'__Rochester__ was afraid of wanting something that he couldn't have so he kept trying to push her away.'_

"Oh, Ari, you _bakachan_!" she told herself. She remembered the way she would catch him looking at her – the questioning crease of his forehead, the wistful gleam in his eyes, and the way he would almost smile and then hide it behind a gruff mannerism. "Kirin was trying not to fall in love with me," she said numbly. "He wanted me but he knew he couldn't have me." She looked at the book again and re-read the underlined words out loud as the message that they were meant to be: 

_"'Savage, beautiful creature…  It is you, spirit--with will and energy, and virtue and purity--that I want.  Come with soft flight and nestle against my heart. However, you are leaving me -- you will not be my comforter, my rescuer? My deep love, my wild woe, my frantic prayer -- are all nothing to you? You leave me here in anguish… think of me...my hope--my love--my life!'"_

"Why didn't I realize this?" Ariana felt numb, cold in spite of the warm summer breeze washing over her. "I can never go back – the Tengu will only hide from me." There was motion up the train tracks and she began to gather her things on auto-pilot. "He'll never know how I feel! I can never—" Her voice caught in a raw sob. "—I can never tell him that I love him!"

It was only by luck that she managed to get onto the train at all, much less catch the Hokutosei night train in Tokyo that went up the east coast of Japan. Ariana kept replaying the events of the past few nights spent with the Tengu and cursing herself for not being more aware. Every time she thought of Kirin, alone in the schoolroom as he underlined those words, letting the book say what he could not – she wanted to cry but she would not, could not do it! Instead she let her misery cover her like a grey blanket as the miles passed by.

She left the train on the outskirts of Sendai City and cut cross-country towards Mt. Zao in the distance. It was a little out-of-way but Ariana wanted some time to compose herself. She was a mess; her clothes and hair were smudged and windblown from two nights spent riding on top of trains. There was nothing to be done about that but she was determined to not to let her inner anguish show.

"All right, Ari," she said as the gates of the Ishimura compound came into view and she began to slow down for a landing, "you can do this. Think Lara Croft. Cool, calm, coming home from a successful mission – that's the ticket." She touched down behind a low-spreading zelkova tree and stepped out onto the road with a confident step.

One of the hatchlings that were playing an elaborate game beneath the ornate gate saw her first. She scampered inside to find a grown-up and within minutes, a crowd began to gather. Graeme and Toshi fought their way to her as assorted gargoyles began to yammer excitedly and call out questions.

"_Oniichan__!!_" Graeme grabbed her and hugged her so hard that blue spots danced before her eyes. "You scared the crap out of me! What do you mean, turning off your comlink?"

"Sorry," she answered breathlessly. "I just wanted some time to myself, _oniisan_. You didn't need to worry."

Midori plowed through and seized her from the other side. "Ari-_chan_! I couldn't believe it! You were so brave to go off on your own – did you find them? Did you find the Tengu?"

"Yes, I—" Anything else she might have said was lost in the rush of raised voices crashing over her like a massive wave. Someone, possibly Graeme, took her backpack. Everyone's voices sounded muted and distorted as if they were speaking underwater. Midori was standing to her right in her red-and-white _miko_ costume, guiding her through the crowd and issuing orders in rapidfire Japanese.

"Ariana!" her mother called out joyfully as gargoyles hurried out of her way. "Ari-_chan_, you're back! We were not expecting you back for two more days!" Sata embraced her decorously and while doing so, lowered her voice in a sharper tone. "When you are fed and rested, young warrior, we will be having a long talk about these impulses of yours! Sometimes I think you are a bigger thrillseeker than your father."

Numbly, she nodded in all the right places and Sata seemed happy enough with her responses. She stared at Graeme's back as he broke a trail for them through the crowd. Her twin kept glancing back at her with an increasingly concerned look on his face; even though they were fraternal twins, they'd always been able to tell how the other felt.

Kai's voice boomed out. "Ah, Brooklyn-_san_! There she is! Come now, give the Ancestress and her family some privacy!"

As the Ishimurans began to disperse, Brooklyn hurried towards her. "Hey," he called out in his husky voice, "there's my girl. Graeme says you found the Tengu – I always knew you could do it." He paused and narrowed his eyes. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

The words simply would not come. Ariana felt her fragile composure slipping away; her father might appear easy-going but he'd always been more intuitive than Sata. The concerned crease of his brow alone told her that he knew that she was putting on an act. Tears swelled up in her eyes as she stood there and began to tremble, unable to stop. Brooklyn did the only thing he could do – he gave her a crooked smile and held out his arms. Ariana fled into the comfort of his embrace and let his wings shield her from the world.

****

****

****

**_To be continued in "Tengu", Epilogue…._**


	6. Epilogue

**Tengu**

A TGS-based story

by C.S. Hayden

Characters from the "Gargoyles" show are the property of Disney and Buena Vista Television. All other characters are from The Gargoyles Saga fanfiction series and the story "Yama's Path" by Kimberly Towle. Scene from "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare.

Ariana's kimono designed by Nikki Owen a.k.a.**y2hecate**, winner of my "Tengu: Design a Kimono" contest. 

**Epilogue:**

Sitting by the open window of the teahouse, Ariana suppressed another sigh as she watched Graeme and Lucy strolling through the gardens below. The English gargoyle had arrived with a few of her rookery mates only the night before and although he didn't show it, her brother was overjoyed to be with his white-furred lioness again. Ariana was betting that the two of them would be slipping away from the festivities to be alone as soon as they could manage it. She smiled sadly, happy for her brother but feeling wistful for her own prospects.

It had been less than a week since Ariana had returned from Osaka. The two nights that she had spent hopping trains had left her too much time to dwell on what might have been. As result, the first thing she did when she arrived in Ishimura was to throw herself into Brooklyn's arms and burst into tears. Her parents were so alarmed by this uncharacteristic behavior that her subsequent chewing out was less severe than it could have been.

Her clandestine adventure had given her a certain notoriety among her peers and the young warriors that had ignored her before had started to see her in a new light. Ariana should have been delighted with all the attention but none of it made her happy. She had finally confided in Midori that she'd fallen in love with someone that she'd never see again. Her friend was immediately sympathetic but refused to let Ariana mope about it. Instead, every evening Midori made a point of taking Ariana with her wherever she went, forcing her to socialize again, and slowly Ariana came back to her normal, fun-loving self, heartsore but none the worse for her experiences.

Sata had assigned Ariana and Midori to serve as hostesses while they introduced the visiting clans to the fine art of _Chaji_, the tea ceremony. She had to admit that focusing on the subtle movements of the ritual did take her mind off things. Midori had taken a small party into the south room and Ariana's nose told her that sandalwood had just been added to the charcoal brazier. The heady scent of the incense made her drowsy and she busied herself with preparing the north room for the next guests. She replaced the _kukemono_, a scroll painting done by Kai himself, and carefully re-set the low table with a ceremonial tea set decorated with a dark purple glaze.

A bright tinkle of the chimes hanging at the garden gate heralded the arrival of new guests. Ariana cast her eyes around to check that everything was in place and slid the door of the tea house dramatically, posing for a moment so the visitors could get the full effect.  She and Midori had been decked out in full maiden's regalia -- brightly colored _furisode_ with long sleeves that hung to their knees and sweeping hems that brushed the ground. Her own outfit was an artistic rendering of a midnight sky with a moon silkscreened on her left shoulder and stylized waves all around the hem. Her hair was piled high in a sophisticated style with several lacquered hairpins and her sidelocks were adorned with silvery beads at her temples, leaving them to hang like long silky tassels on either side of her face. Unlike the geisha makeup that she'd been forced to wear by the Tengu, her only cosmetics was a subtle touch of color on her eyelids.

"_Konbanwa_, honorable guests," Ariana said with a formal bow. "Please enter and be welcome."

"Ah, Ari-_chan_!" Kai said in his deep, quiet voice. "Is there a tea room available? An old friend has arrived and I wish to welcome him properly."

"_Hai_, Kai-_sama_," Ariana answered bowing once again to the Ishimura leader. "Everything is prepared."

"It is as it should be," Sata said with quiet pride. "My daughter is an excellent tea hostess." Ariana looked up at her mother's voice to see her and Brooklyn waiting on the wide porch with much taller gargoyle half-hidden in the shadows. Sata bowed to the newcomer. "Please enter, noble guest; this _chaji_is in your honor."

An impressive set of horns scraped against the top of the doorway and Ariana felt her heart stop. Dressed in a conservative black kimono with an inset band of slate blue filled with graphic black diamonds, Kirin stepped into the tea house and bowed slowly to her as she frantically told herself to breathe. It took every bit of self-control that she had not to rush forward and to throw herself into his arms. "Lady Ariana," he said, the corners of his wide mouth twitching up. "It is good to see you again." His warm brown eyes danced beneath his furry eyebrows. "How very lovely you look tonight."

"You are very kind, Kirin-_san_," Ariana answered adroitly, "but it's just some old thing that I threw on." His intense gaze seemed to be busy memorizing every tiny detail of her appearance. She lifted her chin to hide her own nervousness and looked him over boldly. Dressed formally, Kirin himself was an impressive sight. He had even taken the time to trim his beard and groom his waist length mane. Without the snarls and tangles, she could see that his hair was actually baby fine curls that twisted around his horns like a fiery cloud.  "I see someone finally took a comb to that rat's nest of yours."

Kirin rolled his eyes up to the wispy locks that were floating over his brow ridges. "Yes," he drawled out testily, "and it was very painful. Does this please you?"

"Yes," Ariana replied coyly, "it does." Fighting the urge to smirk, she led them inside while her heart threatened to pound right out of her chest.

Sata regarded their exchange in mild surprise. "You have met my daughter before, Kirin-_san_?"

"I could hardly forget her, Lady Sata." Kirin cocked an eyebrow at Ariana as she busied herself with the ceremony. "She hit me over the head with a bo staff."

"Well, that's one way to make a first impression," Brooklyn quipped proudly.

"Naturally, I snapped her weapon in two." Kirin paused while Brooklyn began to snicker. "For some reason, she became irrationally angry. Strange girl."

"Funny, her mother reacts the same way."

"Brooklyn-_san_!"

"It took four of us to subdue her." Kirin bowed towards Sata. "That had to be your doing, Lady Sata. You must have started training her right out of the egg. Her fighting skills are phenomenal."

Sata returned his gesture. "Ariana was born with a warrior's heart," she said adroitly. "I cannot take full credit for her abilities. She has studied many different fighting styles."

"As did Kirin when we were younger," Kai commented. "He and I studied under Master Setsu. I had to stop when the previous leader died unexpectedly but Kirin completed his mastery." He grinned. "Although I cannot imagine you find much use for it in the classroom, _neh_?"

"You would be surprised, Kai-_sama_," Kirin answered mildly. "The ability to slice up a body with a sword is invaluable when dealing with adolescents."

"I didn't realize that you were originally from Ishimura," Brooklyn commented.

"Kirin has been living with the Tengu clan," Kai explained as they all entered the tea room. "They have been in isolation so long that they were unaware that we have been in contact with other clans. I was surprised that the Tengu let you come, brother. Lady Ariana told us that there was considerable earthquake damage to your village."

"True, but the repairs were not as difficult as we first thought. The elders decided that we should not miss this opportunity to renew ties with Ishimura," Kirin continued. "Therefore, I was sent to attend your Grand Miai with my three students. There are no females their age among the Tengu. Lady Ariana made quite an impression upon them."

"Ah!" Sata exchanged a knowing glance with Brooklyn. "Now we understand." She leaned towards Kirin. "You see, Ari-_chan_ has not been herself since she got back. Perhaps you know of someone who is also feeling melancholy."

Kirin merely bowed his head enigmatically. "Indeed, Lady Sata," he said simply. "There is one among the Tengu who has been feeling your daughter's absence most profoundly." He barely glanced at Ariana as he spoke but she still nearly put a spoonful of green tea into the brazier instead of the incense. He turned back to her parents and continued, "I must confess that was one of the reasons that I asked Kai to invite you and your mate to join us. One must observe a certain protocol in these matters."

"I agree, Kirin-_san_!" Sata replied enthusiastically. "It is traditional for the families to meet prior to a formal handfasting."

"Tradition is important to the Tengu." Kirin bowed his head again. "It is customary to ask permission of the clan leader or rookery mother before allowing a prospective couple to become further acquainted. Since Ariana is unique in openly acknowledging her family ties, I thought it wise to approach you and Brooklyn-_san_ directly."

While the others made small talk, Ariana went through the motions of the tea ceremony to hide her growing anxiety. She was dying to know why Kirin had really returned to Ishimura; he kept giving her covert glances from beneath his hairy eyebrows while he played conversational games with her mother.

Brooklyn had been following along and cleared his throat. "Let me get this straight," he said. "You're asking our permission?" He raised a brow ridge. "Shouldn't the guy that's interested in Ariana be doing this, not you?" Kai said nothing but he was looking shrewdly at Kirin as well.

"This is Japan, Brooklyn-_san_," Sata said gently. "Things are done differently here. It is customary to use go-betweens at a first meeting to arrange the matches."

"Yeah, but—"

"Kirin-_san_, we have no objections to Ariana being properly courted," Sata continued, "but we will speak further of this later. For now, let us enjoy the tea." She turned a serene face to her daughter and motioned for Ariana to continue.

The rest of the _chaji_ proceeded smoothly but afterwards, Ariana didn't have the slightest idea how she managed it. All she could think of was the lingering touch of Kirin's fingers when she handed him the first bowl of tea and the warm look when their eyes met across the narrow table. Towards the end, Midori came in to assist and she was grateful for her friend's calming influence. She remained behind as Ariana escorted the guests to the door and gave them the traditional farewell.

"Who was that?" Midori asked as she helped gather up the tea things. "Is he from Osaka? One of my guests said that a small contingent of Tengu arrived earlier this evening."

"That's just Kirin," Ariana said off-handedly. "He brought Tic, Tak, and Toe here to meet girls, or so he says."

"A-ha!" Midori giggled. "You should have seen yourself, Ari-_chan_. You kept looking at him and smiling for no apparent reason." She gave her friend a knowing wink.

"You're seeing things, Mi-_chan_!" Ariana snorted and kept her eyes on her work. "Kirin is opinionated, arrogant, overbearing –"

"—handsome in a wild, unkempt sort of way," continued Midori as she looked out the tea house window, "and he seems to be waiting for you in the garden." Her friend reached over and took the tray of dishes from Ariana's hands. "Perhaps you should join him, _neh_?"

Nervously, Ariana rose and carefully arranged her kimono. She had to take small, mincing steps so not to disorder her skirts when she desperately wanted to run from the room. Taking a deep breath to settle her nerves, she negotiated the steps leading down into the garden. Kirin saw her and met her halfway along the gravel path beneath an ornamental maple tree. They stared at each other anxiously for a few minutes before they found the courage to speak.

"Well, well," Ariana said tartly. "You're a long way from the mountains."

"After you left," Kirin said dryly, "I found there was something that I needed to give you."

"Pocky and chocolate?" She laughed. "No, wait – you found my underwear."

"Yes," he said with a wry lift of one eyebrow, "and we'll be discussing the trouble that little discovery caused later, but right now –" Kirin reached out and lightly caressed her brow ridges, letting his fingers drift down to her cheek. In one motion, he tilted her chin up and covered her mouth with his before she had a chance to protest.

Instinctively, Ariana made a fist and was halfway to smashing it into his ribs before she realized just what was happening. Her eyes widened for a moment and then her lashes slowly drifted shut as she became immersed in the smell and the taste and the nearness of him. In spite of his fish-whiskered mouth, his lips were firm and inquisitive and determined as Kirin made his intentions very clear. This was no make-believe stage kiss; for a moment the world itself stopped, and Ariana felt as if she was back in the timeless void of the Phoenix Gate.

Kirin released her, chest heaving as he gazed at her. They stood there for a few moments, steadying themselves before he finally spoke. "There... you've had your first kiss." He smiled nervously. "If you ask nicely, I might give you another."

Upon hearing her own words turned back on her, Ariana curled her toes under her kimono in suppressed glee. "I don't know," she said coyly. "Are you saying that your kisses are like pocky -- sweet, tasty, and in a variety of flavors?"

"And yet strangely addictive," Kirin continued, extending his arm to her as an invitation to continue their stroll. "Not unlike yourself."

"Oh, really?" she asked, taking his arm as her heart pounded in her ears. "Why do you say that?"

"Because when you left, I couldn't bear the thought of never seeing you again." He stopped and took a deep breath. "My heart broke to watch that train leaving." Giving her a sly look, he commented, "I've always thought that Rochester was a fool for not going after Jane. I wasn't about to make the same mistake."

Ariana hugged his arm to her. "You know, I couldn't stop crying after I found your copy of **_Jane Eyre_** in my backpack." She felt him nuzzle her brow ridges. "I found your message in it -- why couldn't you say those things to me?"

"I was afraid to," he answered solemnly. "I lost at love once before and you know how much I hate to lose. If I had told you how I felt, opened my heart to you and you did not return my feelings, I was not sure I could survive it." He drew a shaky breath. "Kai tells me that you have not been yourself. He wondered if something happened when you were among the Tengu."

"Well, something did," she said, raising her chin. "Didn't it?"

"Yes," he answered cautiously as he turned to face her. "Something between us happened, _neh_?"

Nodding, she smiled nervously. "I don't know why but ever since I got back, I haven't been able to think of anything else. You were so damn condescending and arrogant. I couldn't stand you at first."

Kirin returned her smile. "You were impulsive and irritating and thoroughly impossible."

"But I don't feel that way any more – do you?" Her voice dropped to an anxious hush.

"Love is strange – it is like the wind. You never know where it will take you."

"No kidding." She gave a little laugh. "It certainly blew us from one side of Japan to the other!" Biting her lip, she asked, "So where do we go from here?"

"I do not know. Perhaps we should wait to see where the wind takes us." He huffed and swallowed hard. "You and I – oh, _bishoujo_, there are so many things against us! I have no right to want you but I've waited so long and --"

She put her hand over his mouth. "Wait a minute," she said breathlessly. "What did you call me?"

"_Bishoujo_," Kirin said softly, kissing her fingertips. "You are my beautiful girl, Ari-_chan_ – I have thought so ever since the first time I saw you. Never doubt that."

"Oh." She bit her lower lip and blushed. "None of the others have ever said that."

"Others?" He bristled indignantly and drew himself up to his full height. "What others?"

Glancing at the thundercloud expression on his face, Ariana stifled a giggle. "I've been popular with the guys since I got back. Apparently, I'm the bad girl their rookery mothers warned them about."

"Then," Kirin frowned and looked away, "I'm too late."

"No, you're not." Ariana took a deep breath and went for it. "True, I've been with a few guys since I got back but that's only because Midori made me double-date with her. I've been miserable all week because I thought I'd screwed up everything." She fiddled with the tassel on her obi, suddenly shy. "Were you serious about asking my parents for permission to court me?"

"Yes." He smiled ruefully. "I'm afraid that I'm old-fashioned that way."

"I noticed you didn't use names when you asked," Ariana said, narrowing her eyes. "Mother's probably scoping out the Three right now."

"Thus giving us this moment alone," he pointed out. "Your parents will need time to get used to a middle-aged teacher as their daughter's suitor, assuming that you will have me." He took a deep breath and let it out in a whisker-rattling huff. "For years, my heart has been an empty cup. You came into my life like a drink of cool water and filled it so thoroughly that when you left, I nearly died of thirst. I am not young, I am altogether too stubborn and set in my ways, but Ari-_chan_ – I would do anything to have you in my life."

Torn between the girlish urge to dance for joy or to burst out in exuberant tears, Ariana composed herself and merely said, "That depends…. Do you think you can put up with an impulsive thrillseeker?"

"I think I've lived the quiet life long enough," Kirin answered with the light dancing in his eyes. "I promised myself I would never fall in love again and that I would never return to Ishimura and yet here I am." He scowled at her playfully. "You really are the most manipulative creature!"

Ariana laughed. "You need to work on your sweet talk, pal."

"You need to practice your kissing, wench."

"I could use a private tutor," she said, tapping her beak thoughtfully. "I don't suppose you'd know of one that's available, do you?"

"It's entirely possible," Kirin conceded. "I am, after all, an excellent teacher."

"I'm warning you," Ariana said as she reached up and put her arms around his neck, "I'm a very quick study."

"Then perhaps you will teach this old gargoyle some new tricks," Kirin countered as his hands encircled her waist.

"Count on it." She tilted her head to one side. "There's just something that I've got to know – why didn't you kiss me sooner?"

"Because I knew that once I kissed you, _bishoujo_," Kirin said as he nuzzled her mouth, "I would never want to stop."

As their embrace grew more impassioned, Ariana felt a wave of contentment sweep over her. All the anxiety and stress of the past week seemed to drift away with each kiss. She had traveled from one side of Japan to the other, searching for a place where she belonged and a purpose to her life. Nothing had turned out quite as she'd planned but she didn't mind at all. The tell-tale tingle in her wings told her that she and Kirin were on the edge of an even bigger adventure.

Ariana couldn't wait.

**The End.******

Ariana's kimono designed by Nikki Owen a.k.a.y2hecate, winner of my "Tengu: Design a Kimono" contest. Her winning entry can be found here: class=MsoNormal 'text-indent:.5in'>PICTURES:

The path leading to Tenjo Temple

www.kkr.mlit.go.jp/rokko/inet/english/9902/9902emap6.htm

Forest on Mt. Maya

www.kkr.mlit.go.jp/rokko/inet/english/9902/9902emap5.htm

Rokko Mountain range

www.kkr.mlit.go.jp/rokko/inet/english/9902/9902emapa.htm

Tengu Rock (1949 artist's print, Kawase Hasui)

The Tengu – a cartoon short story by Craig Phillips

JAPANESE GLOSSARY:

aisai:                 beloved wife

baka:                stupid; also _bakamei_ (stupid head), _bakachan_ (stupid or silly little girl)

                        or _bakayaro_ (really really rude)

bishoujo:            beautiful girl

busu:                 ugly girl (a pretty rude insult)

Chaji:                art of the Japanese tea ceremony

-chan:               affectionate honorific, fem.

_Domo arigatou _

_gozaimasu__:      _a very formal way of saying 'thank you very much.'

fundoshi:           traditional Japanese loincloth

furisode:            brightly colored, long sleeved elaborate kimonos generally worn

                        by unmarried girls

_Itadakimasu_:**    "**I receive this humbly." Used before beginning a meal

                        and required by protocol

kanji:                 Japanese pictograms

karasu:              crow

_Konbanwa:_      "Good evening"

-kun:                 affectionate honorific, masc.

miko:                female Shinto shrine attendant or priestess who can be identified

                        by her uniform of white _kimono_ robeand red _hakama_ divided skirt.

mozo:                shrike; the official bird of Osaka prefecture

obaasan_:_           grandmother; affectionate term for older female

ojisan:               uncle; affectionate term for older male

oniichan:           affectionate term for sister (usually older sister, but since Graeme & Ariana are

                        twins, they use oniichan and oniisan interchangeably)

oniisan:             affectionate term for brother

-sama:              honorific indicating higher rank or status

tancho:              Japanese crane

yamabushi:        mountain priest

yukuta:              lightweight cotton summer kimono


End file.
